THEORY  OF  POLITICS: 

AN   INQUIRY 

INTO  THE 

FOUNDATIONS  OF  GOVERNMENTS, 


CAUSES   AND   PROGRESS 


OP 


POLITICAL    REVOLUTIONS- 


BY 

RICHARD   HILDRETH, 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA,"  ETC. 


NEW   YORK  : 
HARPER     &     BROTHERS, 

329  &  331  PEARL  STREET. 

1854. 


- 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1853,  by 

RICHARD  HILDRETH, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


THEORY  OF   POLITICS 


Bi-utus.    Another  general  shout  I 
I  do  believe  thnt  these  applauses  are 
For  some  new  honors  that  are  heaped  on  Cwsar. 

Camus.    Why,  man,  he  doth  bestride  the  narrow  world 
lake  a  Colossus ;  and  we  petty  men 
Walk  under  his  huge  legs,  and  peep  about 
To  find  ourselves  dishonorable  graves. 
Men  at  some  time  ore  masters  of  their  fates : 
The  fault,  dear  Brutus,  is  not  in  our  stars, 
lint  in  ourselves,  that  we  are  underlings. 
Brutus  and  Caesar  I    What  should  be  in  that  Caesar  ? 
Why  should  that  name  be  sounded  more  than  yours  ? 
Write  them  together,  youra  is  as  fair  a  name ; 
Sound  them,  it  doth  become  the  mouth  as  well ; 
Weigh  them,  it  is  as  heavy  ;  conjure  with  them, 
Brutus  will  start  a  spirit  as  soon  as  Ca?sar. 
Now,  in  the  name  of  all  the  gods  at  once, 
Vixm  what  meat  doth  this  our  Caesar  feed, 
That  he  is  grown  so  great  ? 

JULIUS  C.ESAB,  acti.  sc.  2. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


THE  following  treatise,  substantially  as  it  now 
appears,  was  composed  about  twelve  years  ago. 
The  views  it  contains  having  been  confirmed  in 
the  author's  mind  by  subsequent  reading  and  re- 
flection, it  is  now  published,  with  a  few  alterations 
and  additions,  principally  suggested  by  occurrences 
since  the  date  of  its  original  composition. 

The  THEORY  OF  WEALTH  referred  to  in  it,  and 
forming  a  necessary  part  of  the  design,  was  written 
at  the  same  time.  Should  a  demand  for  it  be  in- 
dicated by  the  reception  of  the  present  volume,  it 
will  speedily  be  forthcoming. 

The  author  specially  commends  this  treatise  to 
the  attention  of  such  critics  as  have  complained 
that  his  History  of  the  United  States  has  no  "  phi- 
losophy" in  it. 

R.  H. 

BOSTON,  January  31,  1853. 

1*  (5) 


CtNTENTS. 


PART    FIRST. 

ELEMENTS  OF  POLITICAL  POWER. 

CHAPTER    I. 

THE  POLITICAL  EQUILIBRIUM  CALLED  GOVERNMENT. 

SECTION  PAGB 

1.  Various  Forms  under  which  this  Political  Equilibrium  pre- 

sents itself, 13 

2.  Forces  which  produce  a  Political  Equilibrium,       16 

3.  Means  whereby  a  Political  Equilibrium  is  sustained  or  over- 

turned,      23 

4.  Anarchical  Logical  Results  of  the  Metaphysical  Theory  of 

Natural  Human  Equality,       26 

5.  Proposed  Inquiry  into  and  Analysis  of  the  Particular  Sources 

of  Political  Authority, 29 

CHAPTER    II. 

PRIMARY  ELEMENTS  OP  POWER,  OR  INTRINSIC  SOURCES  OF  INEQUALITY. 

1.  Muscular  Strength, 31 

2.  Skill,  Dexterity,  or  Art, • 33 

3.  Sagacity, 35 

4.  Force  of  Will 36 

5.  Knowledge, 37 

6.  Eloquence, 44 

7.  Virtue, 46 

vii 


Vlll  ,  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    III. 

SECONDARY  ELEMENTS  OF  POWER,  OR  EXTRINSIC  SOURCES  OP 

INEQUALITY.  A 

1.  Wealth, 49 

2.  Traditionary  Respect, 54 

3.  The  Idea  of  Property  in  Power, 5.5 

4.  Influence  of  Mystical  Ideas, 56 

5.  Combination, 63 

6.  Aggregation, 68 

7.  Illustration  from  the  Hiad, 69 


PART    SECOND. 
FORMS   OF   GOVERNMENT   AND   POLITICAL   REVOLUTIONS. 

CHAPTER    I. 

COMMENCEMENT  OF  ORGANIZED  GOVERNMENT. 

1.  Communities  in  which  there  is  no  Organized  Government,      .     71 

2.  Causes  which  lead  to  the  Establishment  of  an  Organized  Gov- 

ernment—  War, 73 

3.  Accumulation  of  Wealth,       7., 

4.  Influence  of  Mystical  Ideas, 78 

CHAPTER    II. 

DEVELOPMENT  AND  GROWTH  OF  THE  ORIGINAL  MONARCHY. 

1.  Limited  Extent  of  the  Embryo  Monarchy,    .     .     .     .     .     .     .     81 

2.  Passage  from  the  Hunter  to  the  Shepherd  State.     Commence- 

ment of  the  Accumulation  of  Wealth, 82 

3.  First  Effect  of  this  Change  —  Increase  of  Paternal  Authority,  82 

4.  Second  Effect  —  Introduction  of  Domestic  or  Chattel  Slavery,  84 

5.  Third  Effect  —  Introduction  of  Organized  Government,      .     .  85 


CONTENTS.  lx 

6.  Extension  given  by  Agriculture  to  Chattel  Slavery,    ....  86 

7.  Influence  of  Mystical  Ideas  a  Substitute  for  Chattel  Slavery. 

Mystical  Form  of  Social  Slavery, 87 

8.  The  Chieftain  becomes^,  King, 88 

9.  Extension  of  the  Original  Kingdom  by  Conquest 89 

10.  Contact  of  Shepherd  Kingdoms  with  Agricultural  States,      .  91 


CHAPTER    III. 

OLIGARCHIES,  ARISTOCRACIES,  TYRANNIES,  SECONDARY  MONARCHY. 

1.  Circumstances  under  which  a  Higher  Political  Development 

becomes  possible, /     97 

2.  Illustrations  from  Grecian  History.    The  Primitive  Greek 

Kingdoms, 98 

3.  Greek  Oligarchies,  Aristocracies,  Democracies,  Tyrannies,      .  99 

4.  Greek  Revolutions.     Secondary  Monarchy, 102 

5.  Illustrations  from  Roman  History, 104 

CHAPTER    IV. 

REVOLUTIONS  OF  MYSTICAL  GOVERNMENTS,    .    .    .     108 

/* 

CHAPTER   V. 

DISTRIBUTION  AND  DIVISION  OF  AUTHORITY.  •  MIXED  FORMS  OF 
GOVERNMENT. 

1.  State  of  Things  that  attended  and  followed  the  Downfall 

of  the  Roman  Empire.     Serfdom  substituted  for  Chattel 

Slavery, Ill 

2.  Origin  and  Character  of  the  Feudal  System, 114 

3.  Monarchy  as  an  Element  in  the  Feudal  System, 115 

4.  The  Power  of  the  Clergy  as  an  Element  in  the  Feudal  System,  117 

5.  The  Feudal  Age  Municipalities.    Their  Freedom  from  Chat- 

tel Slavery.     Origin  and  Fundamental  Ideas  of  Modern 
Democracy, 119 


X  CONTENTS. 

G.  Laboring  Mass  of  the  People.  Approach,  during  the  Feudal 
Times,  to  the  Introduction  into  Europe  of  the  System  of 
Castes, 124 

7.  Development,  in  the  Feudal  Times,  of  Jhe  Idea  of  a  Mixed 

Government, 125 

8.  Mutual  Relations  of  the  Several  Orders  during  the  Feudal 

Times, 127 

9.  Else  and  Progress  of  the  Political  Power  of  the  Legal  Body,     129 

10.  Distribution  of  the  Functions  of  Government.    Subdivisions 

of  Authority,       134 

CHAPTER    VI. 
DELEGATED  AND  REPRESENTATIVE  AUTHORITY. 

1.  Delegation  of  Power  in  Monarchies, 137 

2.  Delegated  Authority  in  Republics.    Representation,     .     .     .     138 

CHAPTER   VII. 

PROCESS  BY  WHICH  DEMOCRACIES  ARE  TRANSFORMED  INTO  ARIS- 
TOCRACIES, OLIGARCHIES,  TYRANNIES,  AND  SECONDARY  MON- 
ARCHIES,   142 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  PATRICIAN  AND  Crvic  ARISTOCRACIES. 

1.  Comparison  of  Civic  and  Patrician  Aristocracies,      ....     148 

2.  Wealth  as  an  Element  of  Power.    Moneyed  Form  of  Social 

Slavery, 151 

CHAPTER    IX. 

ADDITIONAL  ILLUSTRATIONS'  FROM  HISTORY. 

1.  What  we  call  Universal  History, 158 

2.  Ancient  Period,        162 

3.  Middle  Period, 166 

4.  Modern  Period, 168 


CONTENTS.  XI 

PART    THIRD. 

GOVERNMENTS  IN  THEIR  INFLUENCE  UPON  THE  PROG- 
RESS OF  CIVILIZATION,  AND  UPON  HUMAN  HAPPINESS 
IN  GENERAL. 

CHAPTER    I. 

DEFINITION  OF  THE  TERMS  LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND  CIVILIZATION,  227 

CHAPTER   II. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  DIFFERENT  KINDS  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

1.  Test  of  the  Degree  in  which  Governments  inflict  Pain,     .     .     232 

2.  Operation  of  Governments  founded  upon  Conquest,      .     .     .     234 

3.  Of  Tyrannies,    or    Governments    supported   by  Mercenary 

Standing  Armies, 237 

4.  Of  Theocracies, 239 

5.  Of  Governments  based  on  Hereditary  Respect  and  the  Idea 

of  Property  in  Power, 243 

6.  Of  Civic  Aristocracies, 244 

7.  Of  Mixed  Governments, 249 

8.  Of  Democracies, 251 

CONCLUDING  CHAPTER. 
HOPES  AND  HINTS  AS  TO  THE  FUTURE,      .    .    .    267 


THEORY  OF   POLITICS. 


PART    FIRST. 

ELEMENTS   OF   POLITICAL   POWER. 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  POLITICAL  EQUILIBRIUM  CALLED  GOVERNMENT. 

SECTION  FrasT. 

Various  Forms  under  which  this  Political  Equilibrium 
presents  itself. 

CASTING  our  eyes  over  the  world  with  special  at- 
tention to  its  human  inhabitants,  we  find  men  every 
where,  a  few  savage  tribes  excepted,  living  together 
under  distinctly-organized  forms  of  government,  which, 
though,  upon  a  close  inspection,  exceedingly  various, 
are  yet  capable  of  being  all  arranged  under  a  few 
general  heads. 

1.  In  a  large  number  of  communities,  we  see  the 
entire  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  authority 
vested  in  a  single  individual,  by  whom  it  is  exercised 
cither  in  person  or  by  deputies  of  his  own  independ- 
ent selection.  This  general  form,  called  Monarchy, 
admits,  however,  of  numerous  varieties,  as  well  in 
2  13 


14  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

the  extent  of  authority  as  in  the  grounds  upon  which 
that  authority  appears  to  rest.  In  some  states,  it  is 
sustained  by  a  standing  army,  or  by  a  powerful  mili- 
tia of  devoted  followers,  who  look  up  to  the  ruler  as 
their  military  chieftain.  In  others,  the  monarch  is 
revered  either  as  an  incarnate  God,  or  else  as  God's 
chosen  deputy  and  appointed  earthly  vicegerent.  The 
power  of  some  monarchs  appears  to  rest  on  genea- 
logical traditions,  transmitted  with  religious  care,  and 
received  with  implicit  faith,  according  to  which  they 
represent  the  person  and  inherit  the  authority  of  some 
mystic  ancestor,  from  whom  the  whole  community 
traces  its  descent ;  the  power  of  such  monarchs  par- 
taking largely  of  a  paternal,  and  their  subjects'  sub- 
mission of  a  filial  character.  Other  monarchical  rulers 
seem  to  owe  their  position,  entirely  or  chiefly,  to  their 
superior  courage,  activity,  sagacity,  or  eloquence ; 
sometimes  to  superior  wealth ;  sometimes  to  the  re- 
spect or  favor  inspired  by  benefits,  or  supposed  bene- 
fits, conferred  upon  the  community.  In  very  many 
other  cases,  several  or  all  of  these  sources  of  authority 
combine  to  elevate  the  ruler  to  his  station  of  monarch. 

2.  There  is  to  be  observed  a  small  number  of  states, 
in  which  the  form  of  government  is  not  a  monarchy, 
but  an  Oligarchy ;  some  three,  four,  ten,  or  a  hundred 
persons  sharing  between  them  the  control  of  public 
affairs.     But  this  form  is  far  from  common,  since  it 
tends  constantly  to  pass  either  into  a  monarchy  or 
into  that  form  next  to  be  described. 

3.  This  third  form  of  government  is  that  called 
Aristocracy;  the  administration  of  affairs  being  vested 
in  a  larger,  but  still  a  limited  number,  who,  or  a  ma- 
jority of  whom,  appoint  the  magistrates,   make  the 


THE     POLITICAL    EQUILIBRIUM.  15 

laws,  and  decide  all  cases,  criminal  and  civil,  either  in 
person  or  by  deputies  whom  they  select. 

4.  There  is  still  a  fourth  form  of  government,  called 
Democracy,  in  which  the  right  to  legislate  and  to 
judge,  as  well  as  the  appointment  of  executive  magis- 
trates, who  hold  their  offices  for  limited  terms,  rests 
with  the  majority  of  the  male  inhabitants  of  mature 
age,  or  with  persons  whom  that  majority,  immedi- 
ately or  mediately,  appoints  and  displaces. 

But  besides  these  differences  of  form,  there  are 
other  differences  to  be  noted,  not  less  obvious,  and 
still  more  essential.  What  has  been  already  observed 
of  monarchy  is  also  true  of  the  other  forms  of  gov- 
ernment. In  some  states,  authority  is  great,  and 
submission  entire ;  while,  in  others,  both  authority  and 
submission  are  exceedingly  limited.  In  some  govern- 
ments, all  acts  of  authority  are  exercised  according  to 
certain  fixed  rules,  called  Laws ;  while,  in  others,  every 
thing  almost  seems  to  depend  upon  the  temporary 
judgment  or  caprice  of  the  ruling  power,  or  its  depu- 
ties. In  some  states,  all  the  subjects  stand  upon  a 
level  of  equality ;  in  others,  they  are  arranged  in  ranks 
and  orders. 

Turning  from  the  present  to  the  past,  and  reviewing 
such  fragments  as  remain  to  us  of  the  history  of  man- 
kind, we  find  in  all  ages  and  countries  sufficient  coin- 
cidence in  the  forms  and  varieties  of  governments  to 
show  that  those  forms  and  varieties  must  every  where 
have  been  determined  by  the  same  general  laws. 

And  the  same  is  true  of  the  changes  which  govern- 
ments undergo,  passing  from  one  form  to  another,  or 
from  one  variety  to  another  of  the  same  form,  some- 
times by  processes  so  slow  and  quiet  as  to  be  almost 


16  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

imperceptible,  sometimes  by  sudden  and  violent  revo- 
lutions. 

To  him  who  with  his  mind's  eye  runs  over  this 
various  scene  the  question  cannot  but  forcibly  recur, 
What  is  it  that  causes  governments  to  exist  ?  Whence 
the  various  revolutions  which  they  undergo  ?  What 
are  those  sources  of  power,  those  elementary  for 
from  the  balance  of  which  springs  that  political  equi- 
librium which  we  call  Government,  and  from  the  dis- 
turbance and  overturn  of  which  arises  what  we  call 
Revolution,  ending,  in  its  turn,  by  producing  a  new 
equilibrium,  a  new  government,  itself  again  liable 
to  new  disturbances,  producing  new  revolutions  and 
new  governments,  and  so  on  in  apparently  endless 
succession  ? 

SECTION  SECOND. 
Forces  which  produce  a  Political  Equilibrium. 

WHEN  we  come  to  scrutinize  and  to  classify  the 
motives  by  which  human  actions  are  impelled,  there 
appears  among  the  number  one  of  very  obvious  and 
general  operation,  which  may  easily  serve  to  account 
for  the  existence  of  governments,  so  far,  at  least,  as 
those  who  govern  are  concerned.  This  motive  is,  the 
Pleasure  of  Superiority  —  that  pleasure  which  men 
feel,  not  merely  in  the  acknowledgment  by  others  of 
their  superiority,  but  in  the  practical  exercise  of  it ;  an 
impulse  of  mighty  moment  in  human  affairs,  great  and 
small.  In  its  political  operation,  this  motive  is  com- 
monly known  by  the  term  Ambition ;  and  this  motive 
it  is  which  constantly  supplies  such  a  host  of  candi- 


THE    POLITICAL    EQUILIBRIUM.  17 

dates  for  every  dignity,  from  the  paltriest  village 
magistracy  up  to  the  stations  of  prime  minister  or 
king  —  candidates  who,  in  spite  of  the  cares  and  vex- 
ations which  such  positions  generally  involve,  are 
ready  to  incur  expenses  and  obligations,  to  labor  night 
and  day,  and  even  to  submit  to  manifold  humiliations, 
to  obtain  them. 

This  sentiment,  however,  is  far  from  being  suffi- 
cient to  account,  by  itself,  for  the  phenomenon  of  gov- 
ernment ;  since,  by  the  very  same  force  with  which  it 
impels  men  to  seek  the  position  of  governors,  it  im- 
pels them  also  to  avoid  and  escape  from  the  position 
of  subjects.  Here,  indeed,  we  discover  the  chief  cause, 
the  motive  power,  of  all  politicalre  volutions —  a  cause 
always  active,  and  which,  unless  repressed  by  other 
more  potent  causes,  or  provided  with  some  safer  and 
more  limited  field  of  exercise,  will  be  forever  pro- 
ducing revolutions,  or,  if  not  revolutions,  rebellions, 
anarchy,  and  civil  commotions.  There  never  can, 
indeed,  be  any  settled  obedience  or  quiet  submission 
on  the  part  of  the  governed,  until  the  pain  of  inferi- 
ority, which  the  position  of  subjects  naturally  tends 
to  inspire,  is  counterbalanced  or  neutralized  by  the 
operation  of  other  sentiments. 

It  is  not  in  human  nature  quietly  to  submit  to  any 
merely  assumed  superiority  ;  nor  is  there  any  basis 
upon  which  such  an  assumed  superiority  can  be  sus- 
tained for  a  moment,  except  a  persuasion,  well  or  ill 
founded,  on  the  part  of  the*  subjects,  as  well  as  on  the 
part  of  the  rulers,  of  an  actual  superiority  on  the  part 
of  those  rulers  —  a  superiority  either  substantial  and 
permanent  in  its  nature,  or,  at  least,  accidental  and 
temporary;  at  all  events,  sufficient,  for  the  moment, 
2* 


18  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

to  make  it  folly  to  attempt  resistance ;  such  resistance, 
if  attempted  under  such  circumstances,  being  sure,  or, 
at  least,  likely,  to  end  in  failure  —  a  result  pretty  cer- 
tain to  make  the  yoke  heavier. 

This  persuasion  of  an  actual  superiority,  while  it 
inspires  the  rulers  with  fresh  resolution  to  maintain 
their  power,  produces  on  the  part  of  the  governed  a 
threefold  set  of  motives  for  submission  —  first,  Fears ; 
secondly,  Admiration ;  thirdly,  the  Idea  of  the  moral 
Duty  of  obedience. 

1.  Fears,  though  they  relate  to  a  more  or  less  distant 
future,  are  yet,  in  their  character  of  pains  of  appre- 
hension,— for  such  they  are,  —  present  and  immediate 
in  their  operation  as  motives,  and  very  potent  in  their 
influence  upon  human  conduct.  These  fears  are  of 
two  kinds  —  such  as  may  be  called  vain,  imaginary, 
unfounded,  and  such  as  are  reasonable  and  just ;  and 
though,  with  the  progress  of  intelligence,  vain  fears, 
founded  on  imaginary  dangers,  by  which  the  conduct 
of  the  rude  and  ignorant  is  so  extensively  influenced, 
die  out  by  degrees,  yet  the  influence  of  fear,  thus 
gradually  transformed  into  a  rational  dread  of  future 
consequences  comprehensively  foreseen,  comes  to  have 
a  greater  and  greater  influence  over  human  action ; 
so  that  the  more  civilized  and  intelligent  a  community 
becomes,  and  the  more  complicated  its  social  relations, 
the  greater  will  be  the  efficacy  of  this  motive  in  pro- 
ducing submission  to  any  existing  government. 

Fear,  however,  though  multifold  in  its  operation, 
(since  the  dread  of  falling  under  certain  apprehended 
exercises  of  power  will  constantly  prompt  to  submit 
to  other  exercises  of  it,  in  the  hope  of  thus  obtaining 
protection,)  is  very  far  from  being  the  pillar  upon 


THE    POLITICAL    EQUILIBRIUM.  19 

which  the  authority  of  governments  most  securely 
rests. --"That  pillar  is  the  sentiment  of  Admiration, 
and  the  pleasures  which  that  sentiment  affords ;  sub- 
sidiary to  which  is  the  moral  Sentiment. 

2.  Over  the  operation  of  the  desire  of  superiority, 
as  over  every  other  emotion,  habit  and  the  apparent 
possibility  or  impossibility  of  its  gratification  have  a 
very  powerful  influence.     It  is  only  with  respect  to 
those  whom  we  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  as 
our  equals  or  inferiors  that  this  sentiment  exercises  its 
full  force.     As  regards  those  whose  superiority  over 
us  is  unquestionable  and  apparently  irrevocable,  the 
pain  of  inferiority  is  felt  in  a  very  slight  degree,  as- 
suming the  form  of  embarrassment,  or  what  is  called 
bashfulness  ;  or  it  may  be  wholly  superseded  and  dis- 
placed by  pleasures  of  Admiration. 

In  proportion  as  a  man,  or  body  of  men,  can  excite 
these  pleasures  of  admiration  in  our  minds,  in  that 
same  proportion  do  they  become  objects  to  us  of  be- 
nevolence, and  in  that  same  proportion  are  we  dis- 
posed to  sacrifice  our  own  pleasure  and  interest  to 
theirs.  Such  is  the  origin  of  what  lias  been,  aptly 
enough,  termed  "  hero  worship"  —  that  loyal  and  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  to  the  interests  and  wishes  of 
political  and  ecclesiastical  chiefs  of  which  we  see 
every  day  such  striking  instances,  and  which  every 
where  constitutes  the  most  solid  and  reliable  basis  of 
power  and  authority. 

3.  It  is  as  a  subsidiary  support  to  this  great  original 
basis  of  power  that  the  idea  of  Duty  comes  in.     To 
the  reflecting  mind  the  absolute  necessity  of  some  sort 
of  government  is  sufficiently  obvious  —  so  obvious, 
indeed,  that  many  speculative  writers  have  assumed 


20  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

that  government  took  its  origin  in  the  perception  of 
its  utility,  men  having  deliberately  established  it  be- 
cause they  felt  its  necessity.  But  in  this  case,  as  in 
many  others  essential  to  the  existence  of  the  race, 
mankind  have  not  been  left  to  the  slow  deductions  of 
reason,  governments  having  sprung  up  out  of  the  very 
constitution  of  human  nature,  long  before  men  had 
become  reflective  enough  to  perceive  their  practical 
benefits.  Yet  those  benefits,  once  perceived,  and  espe- 
cially when  made  the  more  striking  by  the  contrast 
of  recent  commotions  or  civil  war,  come  to  constitute 
a  very  strong  argument  in  favor  of  upholding  and 
strengthening  the  hands  of  any  such  government  as 
happens  to  exist,  since  the  mere  fact  of  its  existence 
goes  very  far  to  prove  its  rightfulness  and  legality. 

For,  as  actual  superiority  on  the  part  of  the  rulers 
constitutes  the  only  basis  upon  which  government 
can  securely  rest,  so  the  might  to  govern  must  of  ne- 
cessity carry  with  it  the  right  to  govern  ;  and  in  this 
sense, — and  a  very  important  sense  it  is,  too,  —  Might 
does  actually  make  Right. 

Nor,  when  taken  with  its  proper  restrictions,  will 
this  maxim  appear  so  very  paradoxical.  Those  who 
have  the  might  to  govern  have  the  right  to  govern,  but 
not  the  right  to  govern  tyrannically.  As  is  the  case 
of  a  father  with  respect  to  his  children,  so  all  rulers 
are  morally  bound  to  use  that  power  which  the  con- 
stitution of  nature  has  put  into  their  hands,  not  to  the 
injury  of  others,  or  for  their  own  special  benefit,  but 
for  the  common  good  of  the  nation  —  the  joint  benefit 
of  all  concerned ;  not  in  accordance  with  their  own 
arbitrary  will  and  pleasure,  but  in  conformity  to  the 
higher  law  of  moral  obligation ;  and  every  exercise 


THE    POLITICAL    EQUILIBRIUM.  21 

of  power  of  a  different  character,  from  whomsoever 
it  may  come,  is,  and  always  will  be,  none  the  less,  on 
that  account,  tyrannical  and  wicked. 

Yet  every  mere  abuse  of  power  is  by  no  means  to 
be  made  an  excuse  for  attempts  at  the  overturn  of 
existing  governments,  which  can  be  justified  only  by 
some  fair  prospect  of  success,  and  of  the  substitution 
of  a  better  one  in  the  place  of  that  overturned.  And, 
as  actual  success  affords  the  best  proof — in  fact,  the 
only  satisfactory  proof — that  the  enterprise  was  not 
rashly  undertaken,  hence  does  it  mainly  depend  upon 
the  ultimate  result,  whether  the  leaders  in  such  under- 
takings sink  into  obloquy  as  unsuccessful  rebels,  or 
rise  to  renown  as  patriotic  heroes. 

Thus,  in  the  Christian  theology  as  set  forth  in  Mil- 
ton's great  poem,  the  right  of  God  to  govern,  and  the 
duty  of  men  and  angels  to  obey,  are  made  to  rest  upon 
the  power  of  God,  who  is  represented  as  having  cre- 
ated men  and  angels  solely  for  his  own  pleasure  and 
glory ;  while  the  guilt  of  Satan's  rebellion  grows  out 
of  the  hopelessness  of  it.  In  the  heathen  mythology, 
on  the  other  hand,  Jupiter  dethrones  his  father,  Sat- 
urn, and  becomes  his  rightful  successor.  His  might 
makes  and  proves  his  right. 

In  all  cases,  historical  as  well  as  mythological,  an 
authority  or  possession  de  facto,  if  it  continue  to  be 
maintained,  soon  passes  into  an  authority  or  posses- 
sion de  jure.  The  maintenance  of  it  proves  the  might, 
and  the  might  proves  the  right.  Nor,  indeed,  is  any 
very  great  length  of  time  necessary  to  produce  that 
rd'cot.  Robespierre,  having  been  able  to  maintain 
UK-  sovereign  authority  for  less  than  a  twelvemonth, 
is  «rf»M orally  regarded  as  a  usurper  and  tyrant ;  while 


22  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

Bonaparte,  by  holding  it  for  sorn^  fourteen  years, 
passes,  with  many  of  these  very  same  persons,  into 
the  rank  of  a  legitimate  sovereign. 

Yet,  while  the  moral  sentiment  thus  contributes  so 
powerfully  to  the  sustentation  of  existing  govern- 
ments, nevertheless  there  are  cases,  the  governors 
grossly  disregarding  the  higher  law  of  moral  obliga- 
tion, and  obviously  employing  their  power  in  total 
disregard  of  the  public  interests,  and  for  the  sole  ben- 
efit of  themselves  and  their  favorites,  —  the  prospect 
also  appearing  of  a  beneficial  change,  —  in  which  that 
same  moral  sentiment  which  before  prompted  obedi- 
ence becomes  one  of  the  strongest  impulses  to  resist- 
ance to  authority. 

Nor  ought  we  wholly  to  omit  from  the  list  of  sec- 
ondary motives  which  may*cooperate  in  the  minds  of 
governors,  in  conjunction  with  the  sentiment  of  supe- 
riority, to  prompt  to  exercises  of  power  this  same 
moral  sentiment ;  since  it  is  certainly  possible  that 
power  may  be  sought  and  used  as  a  means  of  grati- 
fying the  sentiment  of  benevolence  by  conferring  fa- 
vors on  those  whom  we  love  —  within  which  purview 
may  possibly  be  included  the  great  body  of  the  com- 
munity ;  though,  in  general,  the  limits  of  the  benevo- 
lence of  the  governing  power  are  apt  to  be  a  good 
deal  more  narrow,  and  this  motive  itself,  whatever 
the  sphere  of  its  operation,  to  be  much  more  ostenta- 
tiously put  forward  than  facts  will  warrant.  A  far 
more  effectual  secondary  motive  is,  on  the  part  of  ilu> 
rulers  or  those  seeking  to  become  such,  the  Desire  of 
Wealth,  since  political  power  furnishes  to  those  who 
possess  it  the  means —  in  general,  pretty  effectual  — 
of  securing  to  themselves  —  for  the  most  part  at  the 


THE    POLITICAL    EQUILIBRIUM.  23 

expense  of  the  governed  —  wealth  and  all  that  mass 
of  pleasures  which  wealth  is  able  to  procure ;  and 
hence  the  compound  influence  of  all  those  sentiments 
which  wealth  is  able  to  gratify  commonly  unites  with 
the  love  of  superiority  to  impel  those  who  govern  to 
retain  and  to  extend  their  power. 

But,  as  this  desire  of  wealth  on  the  part  of  the 
governors  can,  for  the  most  part,  only  be  gratified  at 
the  expense  of  the  governed,  this  same  desire  of 
wealth  operates  with  a  corresponding  impulse  on  the 
governed  to  impel  them  to  resist  the  authority  of 
governors,  when  it  is  obviously  exercised  for  their 
impoverishment.  Hence  the  common  observation, 
that  subjects  feel  most  acutely  through  their  pockets  ; 
and  hence  it  has  happened,  though  many  other  acts 
of  government  have  a  much  more  certain  and  perma- 
nent tendency  to  the  national  impoverishment  than  a 
mere  increase  of  taxes,  yet,  as  taxation  has  that  effect 
most  palpably  to  the  vulgar  mind,  that  so  many  fa- 
mous political  revolutions  have  originated,  or,  rather, 
have  taken  a  start  from  the  imposition  of  new  taxes. 


SECTION  THIRD. 

Means  whereby  a  Political  Equilibrium  is  sustained 
or  overturned. 

WHENEVER  the  mutual  play  of  the  forces  enumer- 
ated in  the  preceding  chapter  has  resulted  in  the 
establishment  of  any  given  political  equilibrium,  or 
sysfcin  of  government,  one  of  three  things  must  of 
necessity  follow. 


24  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

1.  The  motives  by  which  the  governed  are  prompted 
to  submit  to  authority  form  an  exact  counterbalance 
to  those  which  prompt  them  to  resist  —  in  which  case, 
so  long  as  the  governors  attempt  no  new  stretch  of 
authority,  the  subjects  quietly  obey ;  but  should  the 
governors  attempt  to  increase  their  power,  —  to  which 
all  governors  are  under  constant  temptation, — in  de- 
fault of  some  new  motive  to  prompt  to  submission, 
these  attempts  will  be  met  and  resisted.  Often,  in- 
deed, from  the  very  circumstance  that  such  resistance 
is  foreseen  and  dreaded,  no  sucU  attempts  will  be 
made,  governors,  whenever  the  potency  of  their  au- 
thority begins  to  be  questioned,  being  liable  to  fall 
under  the  influence  of  fear  equally  with  the  governed. 
This  supposed  condition  of  things  is  that  of  a  sta- 
tionary political  equilibrium — a  government  and  state 
of  society  steady  and  unchanging.  Among  political 
speculatists  of  former  times,  from  Plato  downward,  it 
has  been  a  great  object  to  discover  the  secret  of  such 
a  stationary  political  equilibrium ;  but,  like  many 
other  secrets  for  which  men  have  anxiously  sought,  it 
is,  most  likely,  a  mere  chimera  of  the  fancy,  which, 
were  it  discoverable,  it  would  by  no  means  be  desira- 
ble to  put  into  practice.  So  far  as  our  information 
extends,  no  instance  ever  actually  occurred  of  such  a 
stationary  political  equilibrium,  though  a  pretty  near 
approach  to  it  has  been  made  by  some  theocratic 
governments. 

2.  Or,  secondly,  the  motives,  on  the  part  of  the 
mass  of  the  community,  which  prompt  to  obedience 
being  stronger  than  those  which  prompt  to  resistance, 
the  governors,  impelled,  as  they  constantly  are,  by  the 
love  of  power  to  increase  their  authority,  go  on  in- 


THE    POLITICAL    EQUILIBRIUM.  25 

creasing  it,  till,  by  the  new  intensity  thus  given  to  the 
pain  of  inferiority  on  the  part  of  the  governed,  resist- 
ance is  roused,  the  encroachments  of  the  governors 
are  checked,  and  the  equilibrium  is  restored. 

3.  Or,  what,  under  such  circumstances,  is  much 
more  likely  to  happen,  a  movement  takes  place  in  the 
opposite  direction  ;  the  result  being  that  third  case,  in 
which,  the  motives  that  prompt  to  obedience  on  the 
part  of  the  governed  being  inferior  in  force  to  those 
that  prompt  to  resistance,  a  resistance,  greater  or  less, 
is  steadily  opposed  to  the  authority  of  the  government. 
This  resistance  is  of  two  degrees  —  that  which  is 
called  unarmed,  passive,  and  sometimes  moral  resist- 
ance, consisting  in  complaints,  reproaches,  petitions, 
and  the  refusal  to  aid  in  enforcing  the  laws  ;  and  that 
which  is  the  same  in  its  origin,  substantial  nature,  and 
tendency,  though  different  in  degree,  violent  and  armed 
resistance,  active  opposition  to  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws.  Unarmed  resistance,  if  sedulously  persevered 
in,  produces  often,  by  a  gradual  modification  in  the 
form  and  character  of  the  government,  revolutions  in 
no  respect  the  less  complete  and  entire  because  they 
take  place  by  almost  imperceptible  degrees.  Armed 
resistance  is  exhibited  in  revolts,  coups  d'etat,  and 
civil  wars,  producing  sudden  and  violent  changes. 

Some  lovers  of  liberty,  but,  at  the  same  time,  lovers 
of  peace  and  social  order,  have  attempted  to  draw  a 
distinction  between  armed  and  unarmed  resistance,  as 
though  the  one  were  a  lawful  and  commendable  re- 
sort, and  the  other  not.  And  doubtless,  in  what  are 
called  constitutional  forms  of  government, — ;  govern- 
ments, that  is,  in  which  the  right  of  the  governed  to 
resist  by  certain  peaceful  means,  and  to  attempt  to 
3 


26  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

modify  the  action  and  even  the  spirit  and  form  of  the 
government,  is  admitted,  —  this  distinction  is  sound 
and  just.  Nor,  indeed,  is  armed  resistance  often  re- 
sorted to,  —  at  least  by  any  spontaneous  impulse  on 
the  part  of  considerable  masses  of  the  people,  however 
it  may  be  with  ambitious  individuals  and  those  acting 
under  their  influence,  —  except  where  unarmed  resist- 
ance is  prohibited,  or  has  been  tried  to  no  purpose. 
Unfortunately,  there  have  been,  and  are,  in  the  world, 
very  few  governments  in  which  the  right  of  passive  or 
unarmed  resistance  is  acknowledged.  By  most  gov- 
ernments, such  resistance  is  considered  and  treated 
as  no  better  than  open  rebellion,  which  thus  becomes 
the  sole  resource  of  oppressed  subjects. 


SECTION  FOURTH. 

Anarchical  Logical  Result  of  the  Metaphysical  Theory 
of  Natural  Human  Equality. 

IT  would  appear,  from  the  preceding  review  of  the 
circumstances  under  which  political  equilibria  —  that 
is  to  say,  systems  of  government  —  are  established, 
overturned,  and  reestablished,  that  the  secondary  mo- 
tives —  to  wit,  the  moral  sentiment  and  the  desire  of 
wealth  —  which  impel  to  the  exercise  of  power  are 
precisely  the  same  secondary  motives  which  impel  to 
resistance  to  it.  And  as  the  primary  motive  —  to  wit, 
the  love  of  superiority  —  which  leads  men  to  seek 
power,  and  to  resist  the  exercise  of  it  over  them,  is 
also  the  same,  and  as  the  motive  of  fear,  all  other 
things  being  equal,  would  operate  equally  upon  both 


THE    POLITICAL    EQUILIBRIUM.  27 

sides,  we  should  have,  but  for  a  sense  of  actual  supe- 
riority  on  the  one  side,  and  of  inferiority  on  the  other, 
such  a  complete  counterbalance  of  impulses  as  would 
not  allow,  to  be  either  attempted  or  submitted  to,  any 
steady  exercises  of  power,  such  as  we  see  going  on 
every  where  around  us. 

Such  being  the  case,  we  have  no  occasion  to  won- 
der that,  among  those  who  have  adopted  the  meta- 
physical theory  of  the  natural  equality  of  men,  the 
idea  has  been  started  of  the  possible  existence  of 
society,  not  only  without  laws  and  without  govern- 
ment, but  without  any  exertion  of  power  by  men  over 
each  other.  Indeed,  there  have  not  been  wanting 
some  very  refined  speculators  upon  morals  and  poli- 
tics, who  have  boldly  advanced  the  opinion  that  the 
abolition  of  governments,  and,  indeed,  of  all  control 
and  authority,  is  not  only  possible,  but  a  thing  practi- 
cally to  be  aimed  at ;  though  none  of  these  persons 
seem  to  have  attained  to  any  very  distinct  idea  of  the 
condition  necessary  to  the  existence  of  such  a  state 
of  society. 

That  condition  evidently  is,  not  only  a  perfect 
equality  in  all  respects,  —  an  equality  assumed  as  the 
natural  state  of  the  human  race  by  the  metaphysical 
theory  above  alluded  to, — but,  in  addition,  the  per- 
ception and  admission  of  that  equality  by  every  mem- 
ber of  the  community,  not  merely  as  a  theoretical 
possibility,  but  as  an  actual  present  fact.  As,  under 
such  circumstances,  injurious  exercises  of  power  would 
not  take  place,  or  would  be  instantly  repelled  and 
punished,  remedial  exercises  of  power  from  ».a  source 
exterior  to  the  injured  individual  would  not  be  needed, 
and  the  necessity  for  government  would  be  superseded 
at  the  same  time  with  its  possibility. 


28  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

But  where  such  an  equality  neither  exists  nor  is 
believed  in,  —  every  where,  that  is,  in  the  world  of 
fact,  past  and  present,  —  where  there  is  an  apparent 
and  admitted  inequality,  not  only  does  the  motive 
of  fear  preponderate  on  the  side  of  those  who  see 
themselves  inferior,  to  produce,  on  their  part,  yielding 
and  submission,  but  the  perception  of  that  inferiority 
produces  in  their  minds  the  moral  sentiment  of  the 
duty  of  submission  —  so  long,  at  least,  as  those  in 
authority  conform  themselves,  in  the  exercise  of  it,  to 
the  supereminent  law  of  moral  obligation  ;  while,  at 
the  same  time,  the  contemplation  of  their  admitted 
superiority  gives  rise  to  pleasures  of  admiration,  such 
as  tend  to  make  obedience  not  a  duty  merely,  but  a 
delight  also,  and  that  independently  of  moral  consid- 
erations. Under  these  influences,  governments,  even 
very  oppressive  governments,  come  to  be  regarded, 
even  on  the  part  of  the  subjects,  not  as  necessary  evils 
to  be  submitted  to,  and  at  the  same  time  to  be  re- 
duced within  the  narrowest  possible  limits,  —  such  as 
the  theorists  of  equality  would  represent  government 
always  to  be,  even  under  its  best  estate,  —  but  rather 
as  an  ordinance  of  God  and  nature,  —  as  much  so 
as  the  change  of  seasons  or  the  necessity  of  labor, — 
attended,  indeed,  by  some  inconveniences,  but  still 
beneficent  and  fruitful  in  good ;  at  all  events,  an 
inevitable  law  to  which  society  must  conform  itself. 


THE    POLITICAL    EQUILIBRIUM.  29 


SECTION  FIFTH. 

Proposed  Inquiry  into  and  Analysis  of  the  Particular 
Sources  of  Political  Authority. 

To  ascertain  with  distinctness  the  precise  sources 
of  authority,  their  extent,  and  natural  limits,  and  par- 
ticular methods  of  operation,  it  becomes  necessary  to 
inquire  what  those  things  are  with  respect  to  which, 
or  by  reason  of  which,  there  exists  an  inequality 
among  men,  intrinsic  or  extrinsic,  and  which,  accord- 
ingly, by  giving  rise  to  pains  of  fear  and  to  pleasures 
of  admiration,  prevent  the  motives  which  impel  to 
resistance  from  attaining  a  force  equal  to  that  of  the 
motives  which  impel  to  the  exercise  of  authority ;  in 
consequence  of  which  a  perfect  equality,  and  with  it 
the  non-existence  of  government,  are  nowhere  to  be 
found ;  but  submission  on  the  one  side,  and  authority 
on  the  other,  always  exist,  constituting,  when  they 
take  on  an  organized  form,  that  political  equilibrium 
which  we  call  a  government. 

If  we  find,  in  the  course  of  this  inquiry,  that  cer- 
tain sources  of  inequality  exist  so  permanently  in  the 
constitution  of  man  that  the  state  of  things  which 
would  render  government  at  once  impossible  and  un- 
necessary seems  to  be  quite  out  of  the  question,  for 
the  future  as  well  as  for  the  present,  —  at  least  till 
human  nature  itself  shall  have  undergone  some  rad- 
ical change, — we  shall  also  find  that  certain  other 
sources  of  inequality,  hitherto  and  still  exceedingly 
influential  in  their  effects  upon  human  society,  owe 
their  entire  or  chief  efficacy  to  error  or  false  opinion, 
3* 


30 


THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 


and  that  even   permanent  sources  of  inequality  are, 
in  practice,  greatly  aggravated  by  artificial  means. 

Learning  thus  to  give  over  the  dream  of  any  such 
perfectibility  in  human  nature,  even  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances,  as  will  dispense  with  the 
necessity  for  government,  we  shall,  however,  discover 
that  the  elements  of  fraud,  fear,  and  force,  which  now, 
in  most  governments,  play  so  conspicuous  a  part,  are 
capable  of  being  superseded,  to  a  great  extent,  if  not 
entirely,  by  those  of  intellectual  conviction  and  con- 
sent; thus  purging  the  exercise  of  authority  of  many 
of  the  evils  by  which  it  is  usually  attended,  and  re- 
ducing it  to  the  lowest  degree  compatible  with  the 
nature  of  man  and  the  welfare  of  society,  for  the 
entire  development  of  which,  the  joint  cooperative 
efforts  of  the  whole  community  are  no  less  essential 
than  the  separate  individual  exertions  of  its  members. 


PRIMARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  31 


CHAPTER  II. 

PRIMARY   ELEMENTS    OF   POWER,  OR  INTRINSIC 
SOURCES  OF   INEQUALITY. 

SECTION  FIRST. 
Muscular  Strength. 

THE  first  and  most  obvious  source  of  inequality, 
foundation  of  authority  on  the  one  hand,  and  occasion 
of  submission  on  the  other,  is  inequality  in  MUSCULAR 
STRENGTH. 

The  original  and  most  simple  kind  of  government 
is  that  which  exists  in  the  family,  and  which,  under 
all  forms  of  political  society,  still  continues  to  exist, 
with  but  few  modifications.  The  father  of  the  fam- 
ily, unless  the  municipal  law  interfere  to  restrain  his 
authority,  is  its  absolute  head,  with  supreme  legisla- 
tive and  judicial  functions,  including  the  power  of  life 
and  death  over  its  members.  The  Chinese  code  for- 
mally sanctions  this  extensive  authority,  and  the  old 
Roman  law  did  the  same.  The  English  law  restricts 
the  authority  of  the  father  and  husband  to  the  right 
of  moderate  personal  castigation,  and  even  that  right, 
so  far  as  the  wife  is  concerned,  is  taken  away  by  the 
American  law. 

One  chief  source  of  this  originally-unlimited  power 
on  the  part  of  the  father  is  his  superior  bodily 
strength  —  apparent  enough  as  respects  the  children 
during  their  infancy,  and,  as  respects  the  mothers  of 
those  children,  sufficiently  so,  in  the  great  majority 
of  cases,  for  all  practical  purposes. 


2^  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

Resting,  in  a  great  degree,  upon  his  superior 
strength,  the  authority  of  the  father  naturally  termi- 
nates with  the  termination  of  its  cause.  When  the 
sons  attain  a  strength  equal  to  that  of  their  father, 
their  subjection,  unless  protracted  by  other  causes, 
presently  to,  be  noticed,  naturally  ceases,  and  his  rule 
comes  to  an  end. 

Though,  in  the  savage  state,  the  rule  of  the  father 
over  his  family  be  absolute,  he  seldom  attempts  to 
convert  his  children  into  a  source  of  profit.  But  this 
does  not  proceed  from  any  peculiar  tenderness  on 
the  part  of  savage  fathers,  so  much  as  from  the  want 
of  means  or  opportunity.  Where  the  slave  trade 
flourishes,  savages  do  not  hesitate  to  sell  their  own 
children  ;  while,  in  all  savage  and  barbarous  commu- 
nities, the  females  are  little  better  than  slaves,  mar- 
riage being,  in  fact,  a  sort  of  purchase.  Indeed,  as 
the  inferiority  of  women  in  point  of  strength  is  not 
temporary  merely,  but  permanent,  and  as  the  same 
may  be  said  of  their  relation  to  men  as  to  all  the 
primary  elements  of  power,  hence  that  position  of 
inferiority  which  women  continue  to  occupy,  even  in 
the  most  enlightened  communities ;  seldom  obtaining, 
and  that  only  in  rare  and  exceptional  instances,  and, 
for  the  most  part,  too  indirectly,  any  share  of  political 
power. 

The  order  of  nobles  in  the  South  Sea  Islands  are  a 
taller  and  stronger  race  than  the  common  people ;  and 
the  same  has  been  observed  in  many  other  countries. 
In  the  ancient  republics,  bodily  strength  was  assidu- 
ously cultivated  by  the  exercises  of  the  paleestra, 
which  were  esteemed,  and  not  without  reason,  of  the 
greatest  political  importance.  The  exercises  of  the 


PRIMARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  33 

tournament  during  the  middle  ages,  and  the  prepara- 
tions necessary  for  it,  were  precisely  of  a  similar 
character. 

In  modern  times,  individual  bodily  strength  has  lost 
the  greater  part  of  its  political  importance,  principally 
from  a  circumstance  which  will  presently  be  adverted 
to.  Yet,  even  as  respects  individuals,  a  high  degree 
of  bodily  vigor,  the  capacity  to  undergo  labors  and 
fatigue,  is  very  essential  to  political  eminence ;  while 
strength,  not  individual,  but  combined,  or  aggregated, 
in  the  manner  to  be  presently  pointed  out,  remains, 
and  always  must  remain,  the  ultimate  support  and 
substratum  of  political  authority. 


SECTION  SECOND. 
Skill,  Dexterity,  or  Art. 

NEXT  to  strength,  as  a  natural  and  primary  source 
of  inequality  among  men,  may  be  placed  inequalities 
of  SKILL,  DEXTERITY,  or  ART  ;  this  being  a  means 
whereby  strength  is  made  more  available,  and  defi- 
ciency of  strength  is  supplied. 

Those  sorts  of  dexterity  which  have  the  most  direct 
and  immediate  reference  to  political  power  are,  first, 
dexterity  in  the  use  of  martial  weapons ;  secondly, 
dexterity  in  the  arts  tending  to  the  production  and 
accumulation  of  wealth  —  for  the  possession  of  wealth, 
as  we  shall  presently  see,  is  a  most  important  element 
of  power. 

1.  It  appears,  from  the  history  of  all  nations,  an- 
cient and  modern,  that,  whenever  the  supreme  polit- 


34  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

ical  power  is  exercised  by  a  particular  class,  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  rest  of  the  community,  —  except  in 
governments  resting  mainly  on  a  theocratic  basis,  — 
the  members  of  that  ruling  class  —  with  some  slight 
exceptions,  the  origin  and  occasion  of  which  will  pres- 
ently be  explained  —  always  have  arms  in  their  hands, 
and  sedulously  employ  themselves  in  increasing  by 
exercise  their  skill  in  the  use  of  them.  The  exercises 
of  the  palaestra,  and  the  chivalrous  exercises  of  the 
middle  ages,  already  referred  to,  tended  to  an  incr< 
of  dexterity,  not  less  than  of  strength.  The  declama- 
tions against  luxury,  and  even  against  literature,  with 
which  ancient  writers  abound,  chiefly  originated  in  the 
circumstance  that,  with  the  increase  of  refinement,  the 
ancient  games  and  warlike  exercises,  which  tended  to 
increase  strength  and  military  skill,  fell  into  neglect ; 
the  ruling  order  seeking  amusement  in  occupations, 
such  as  music,  poetry,  literature,  the  fine  arts,  the 
refinements  of  the  table,  &c.,  unfavorable,  by  the 
sedentary  habits  which  they  introduced,*  to  warlike 
dexterity,  no  less  than  to  bodily  strength,  and  which 
tended,  therefore,  to  undermine  and  to  endanger  the 
existing  political  equilibrium. 

In  the  highly-civilized  communities  of  modern  times, 
the  ruling,  class  do  not  always  think  it  necessary  to 
be,  all  of  them,  individually  skilled  in  arms ;  but  the 
officers  of  the  military,  on  whom,  in  modern  warfare, 
every  thing  depends,  are  uniformly  selected  from  the 
ruling  class,  and  make  a  part  of  it.  Thus,  in  British 
India,  though  the  armies  are  largely  composed  of 
native  soldiers,  the  officers  are  all  British. 

The  invention  of  gunpowder,  and  the  subsequent 
improvements  in  artillery  and  firearms,  by  rendering 


PRIMARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  35 

war  not  an  affair  of  individuals,  but  of  aggregated 
masses ;  by  placing  the  strong  and  the  weak,  in  many 
respects,  almost  on  a  level ;  by  superseding  the  neces- 
sity —  at  least  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers  —  for  con- 
stant exercise,  inasmuch  as  adequate  skill  in  the  use 
of  these  arms  is  easily  acquired ;  and  especially  by 
making  war  an  affair  of  science,  —  have  destroyed, 
to  a  great  degree,  the  influence  both  of  individual 
strength,  and  of  individual  dexterity  in  the  use  of 
arms,  as  elements  of  warlike  success,  and  thereby  of 
political  power. 

2.  On  the  other  hand,  dexterity  employed  in  the 
acquisition  of  wealth  —  a  head  embracing  a  great  va- 
riety of  particulars,  sufficient  for  a  treatise  by  itself  — 
has  constantly  gained  in  importance,  as,  with  the 
diminution  of  the  influence  of  some  other  sources  of 
authority,  wealth  has  constantly  acquired  increasing 
importance  as  an  element  of  power. 


SECTION  THIRD. 
Sagacity. 

WE  enumerate,  as  a  third  original  source  of  ine- 
quality, and  primary  element  of  power,  inequalities 
of  SAGACITY,  by  which  term  we  indicate  the  mental 
capacity  of  comprehending  the  position  of  affairs,  and 
of  perceiving  the  best  application,  under  the  circum- 
stances, of  such  strength  and  skill  as  may  be  at  one's 
disposal.  Although  this  inequality  depends  originally 
upon  a  natural  difference,  in  different  individuals,  in 
the  force  of  the  rational  and  conceptive  faculties,  yet 


THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 


it  is  very  much  aggravated  by  position  and  education. 
And  it  may  be  stated,  as  a  general  rule,  that  the  gov- 
erning class  in  every  community  will  be  found  to 
enjoy  very  decided  advantages  in  point  of  education 
and  mental  training ;  or  if,  in  any  community,  these 
advantages  corne  to  be  equally  shared  by  the  subordi- 
nate class,  from  that  moment  the  authority  of  the 
governing  order  becomes  very  precarious. 


SECTION  FOURTH. 
Force  of  Will. 

UNDER  this  common  head  we  class  together  the 
temperaments  or  qualities  of  ACTIVITY,  COURAGE, 
FORTITUDE,  SELF-CONTROL,  or  POLICY,  and  PERSE- 
VERANCE —  qualities  between  which  there  exists  a 
certain  close  association  and  intimate  connection,  yet 
which  are  by  no  means  inseparable,  some  of  them 
being  occasionally  possessed  in  a  high  degree  where 
others  are  deficient.  Perhaps,  from  this  circumstance, 
they  ought  rather  to  be  separately  enumerated,  as  dis- 
tinct elements  of  power.  Yet  they  mutually  strength- 
en each  other,  and  their  just  combination  is  essential 
to  that  resolute,  and  at  the  same  time  judicious  vigor 
of  action,  of  so  much  weight  in  all  human  affairs. 

As  respects  all  these  qualities,  a  certain  degree  of 
inequality  originates,  no  doubt,  in  personal  idiosyn- 
crasies. They  are,  in  fact,  very  dependent  on  origi- 
nal stamina  of  constitution  and  the  state  of  the  bod- 
ily health.  But  the  inequality  that  actually  exists, 
especially  as  regards  masses  of  men,  depends  very 


PRIMARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  37 

much,  also,  as  in  the  case  of  sagacity,  upon  position 
and  education.  To  a  certain  extent,  these  qualities 
are  natural  attendants  upon  the  possession  of  power 
and  that  sense  of  superiority  by  which  power  is  ac- 
companied ;  whilst  deficiency  as  to  all  of  them  natu- 
rally results  from  that  sense  of  inferiority  attendant 
upon  a  subordinate  position. 


SECTION  FIFTH. 
Knowledge. 

THE  aphorism  of  Bacon  that  KNOWLEDGE  is  power 
has  passed  into  a  proverb.  Why  knowledge  is  power 
is  sufficiently  evident.  There  may  be  many  different 
ways  of  doing  the  same  thing,  some  of  which  require 
much  less  strength  than  others.  These  easier  ways 
of  accomplishing  any  given  object  are  discovered 
sometimes  by  accident,  sometimes  by  superior  sa- 
gacity. Accumulated  and  transmitted,  they  form  the 
stock  of  knowledge,  or  a  part  of  it ;  alt  knowledge 
being  either  traditionary,  or  else  the  joint  result  o£  su- 
perior sagacity  and  an  enlarged  experience.  As  there 
are  many  kinds  of  knowledge  to  the  possession  of 
which  personal  experience  is  essential,  hence  the  su- 
periority, in  this  particular,  of  age  over  youth,  and 
hence  the  distinction  between  book  knowledge,  or 
learning,  and  what  is  called  practical  knowledge,  or 
experience. 

Whether  received  by  tradition  or  originating  with 
ourselves,  knowledge,  by  pointing  out  to  us,  among 
several  means  of  accomplishing  an  object,  that  which 
4 


38  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

is  easiest,  stands  often  in  the  place  both  of  strength 
and  dexterity.  Indeed,  what  is  called  dexterity,  or 
art,  often  mainly  depends  upon  superior  knowledge. 

Human  strength  is  a  limited  quantity,  of  which  the 
total  amount  can  only  be  increased  by  increasing  the 
total  number  of  individuals  —  a  process  very  slow 
and  often  narrowly  restricted.  Human  knowledge 
is  an  unlimited  quantity,  capable  of  being  increased 
often  with  vast  rapidity,  and  to  an  indefinite  extent. 
Thus  indefinitely  increased,  though  combined  with 
but  a  limited  degree  of  strength,  it  may  produce  an 
effective  power  of  indefinite  energy.  Hence  it  is  that 
the  increase  of  knowledge  is  so  generally  looked  to  as 
the  chief  means  of  diminishing  the  evils  under  which 
the  human  race  now  suffer,  and  of  increasing  the 
pleasures  which  they  may  enjoy. 

Reading  and  writing  are  not  knowledge,  but  they 
are  the  means  of  knowledge ;  and  by  the  help  of  the 
press,  especially  of  the  periodical  press,  they  are  be- 
coming every  day  more  effectual  and  extensive  in 
their  operation.  Yet,  in  this  climbing  by  the  ladder 
of  the  press  out  of  the  pit  of  ignorance,  for  every 
three  steps  that  are  taken  forward,  at  least  two  steps 
are  generally  taken  backward ;  since  reading  and 
writing  are  not  only  means  of  knowledge,  but  means, 
also,  hardly  less  potent,  for  the  diffusion  of  error, 
which,  though  it  be  often  a  necessary  preliminary  to 
knowledge,  is,  in  many  of  its  immediate  effects,  even 
worse  than  ignorance. 

It  is  customary  to  date  what  is  called  the  revival 
of  learning  in  Europe  from  the  discovery  of  printing. 
But,  to  trace  the  course  of  modem  science,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  go  back  to  a  period  considerably  earlier  —  to 


PRIMARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  39 

the  introduction  of  the  art  of  paper  making,  which, 
by  facilitating  the  multiplication  of  books,  had  pro- 
duced very  perceptible  results  before  types  were  in- 
vented, and  but  for  which,  their  invention  would  have 
been  of  little  use. 

Cotton  paper,  the  kind  first  used  in  Europe,  was  a 
precious  commodity,  brought  from  the  East.  The 
Saracens,  it  is  said,  had  derived  the  art.  of  its  manu- 
facture from  China,  by  way  of  Samarcand  in  Tran- 
oxania,  to  which  province  the  conquests  of  both  the 
Chinese  and  of  the  Caliphs  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Om- 
maides  had  extended.  Its  use  in  the  west  was  very 
limited,  Christendom,  at  that  period,  being  overcast 
with  the  deepest  ignorance,  and  few  except  the  clergy 
being  able  to  read.  But  it  served  to  supply  the  place 
of  the  Egyptian  papyrus,  —  for  many  ages  previous  a 
principal  writing  material, — the  manufacture  of  which 
appears  to  have  ceased  soon  after  the  Mohammedan 
conquest  of  Egypt,  perhaps  in  consequence  of  being 
superseded  by  the  superior  article  of  cotton  paper. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  some 
unknown  inventor  discovered  the  art  of  making  paper 
from  linen  ;  and  shortly  after,  that  manufacture  be- 
came flourishing  in  Spain,  whence  it  gradually  spread 
into  the  rest  of  Europe.  The  multiplication  of  books 
was  thus  greatly  facilitated,  and  the  ability  to  read, 
no  longer  confined  to  the  clergy,  became  diffused 
first  among  the  wealthier  inhabitants  of  the  towns, 
and  presently  among  the  feudal  nobility.  The  popu- 
lar dialects  of  Europe  began  now  to  be  reduced  to 
writing,  and  to  be  employed  first  as  the  language  of 
poetry,  then  for  prose  fictions  and  histories,  and  finally 
for  religious  and  philosophical  disquisitions.  Already 


40  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

readers  had  become  numerous,  before  the  art  of  print- 
ing, known  long  before  in  China,  was  invented  in 
Europe.  Supposing  it  to  have  been  hit  upon  at  an 
earlier  period,  it  might  have  failed  to  come  into  prac- 
tical use. 

It  was  not,  however,  till  printed  books  became 
common,  that  the  attention  of  the  ruling  classes  in 
Europe  seems  to  have  been  much  attracted  to  read- 
ing and  writing,  as  tending  both  to  a  diffusion  and 
to  an  increase  of  knowledge,  hostile  as  well  to  that 
limited  monopoly  of  science  as  to  certain  unfounded 
opinions,  which  together  formed  the  chief  support  of 
the  then  existing  systems  of  political  power.  As 
a  check  upon  these  threatened  results,  two  very 
different  sets  of  preventives  were,  and  still  are,  resort- 
ed to. 

1.  The  first,  rudest,  and  most  obvious  was  dis- 
couraging, and,  so  far  as  possible,  preventing  the 
diffusion  of  the  arts  of  reading  and  writing  among 
the  mass  of  the  governed,  as  things  of  no  use  to 
them,  but,  on  the  contrary,  highly  dangerous  and  in- 
flammatory, tending  to  discontent,"  sedition,  and  revo- 
lution—  a  tendency  which,  in  many  existing  states 
of  society,  they  certainly  have,  and  that,  too,  in  a 
very  high  degree.  Such  was  the  view  under  which 
the  High  Church  party  in  England,  down  to  a  very 
recent  period,  so  warmly  opposed  the  diffusion  of  the 
arts  of  reading  and  writing,  and  of  book  knowledge 
in  general,  among  the  laboring  classes  of  that  country. 
But  it  is  some  of  the  slave  states  of  America  that 
have  gone  furthest  in  this  direction,  by  laws  prohibit- 
ing, under  severe  penalties,  the  teaching  of  slaves  (if 
not,  indeed,  of  the  free  colored  people)  to  read  and 


PRIMARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  41 

write  —  a  kind  of  legislation  hardly  to  be  paralleled 
in  any  other  age  or  country. 

Correlative  to  this  process  as  to  reading,  are  re- 
straints put  upon  writing,  or,  at  least,  upon  printing 
and  publishing,  first  by  the  establishment  of  a  censor- 
ship of  the  press,  and,  in  countries  in  which  it  has 
been  found  necessary  to  abandon  that,  by  criminal 
prosecutions  for  libellous,  seditious,  heretical,  and  ir- 
religious publications ;  to  which  may  be  added  limi- 
tations put  upon  the  circulation  of  newspapers,  by 
means  of  stamp  taxes  and  other  contrivances,  to  en- 
hance their  expense  —  imposed  first,  perhaps,  merely 
for  revenue,  but  kept  up  afterwards  from  political 
motives ;  and  still,  throughout  the  whole  of  Europe, 
in  full  operation,  even  in  states  professing  to  be  the 
freest. 

2.  The  other  method,  and  a  much  more  ingenious 
and  deeper  one,  was  that  introduced  by  Calvin,  Knox, 
and  other  more  ultra  leaders  of  the  Protestant  sects, 
and,  among  the  Catholics,  by  the  Jesuits,  and  fully 
carried  out  by  Austria  and  other  German  states,  ac- 
cording to  which  the  people  are  all  to  be  taught  to 
read ;  to  be  compelled,  indeed,  to  send  their  children 
to  school ;  care,  however,  being  at  the  same  time  taken 
that  no  books  or  writings  shall  get  into  their  hands, 
except  such  as  have  received  the  imprimatur  of  the 
government ;  reading  and  writing  being  thus  made  in- 
struments for  preoccupying  and  impressing  the  minds 
of  the  young  with  opinions  favorable  to  the  existing 
system  —  thus  giving  new  energy  to  those  secondary 
elements  of  power,  to  be  hereafter  enumerated,  de- 
pendent upon  opinion. 

It  is  their  just  sense  of  the  powerful  efficacy 
4* 


42  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

of  this  means  which  has  made  the  clergy,  every 
where  throughout  Christendom,  Protestant  as  well  as 
Catholic,  so  exceedingly  anxious  to  secure,  and  so 
tenacious  to  retain,  the  exclusive  control  and  direc- 
tion of  all  seminaries  of  education,  from  universities 
down  to  infant  schools  ;  and  it  is,  in  part  at  least,  to 
the  same  cause  that  is  due  that  disgraceful  spectacle 
exhibited  by  the  British  nation,  in  the  face  of  Europe, 
the  great  mass  of  the  population  being  suffered  to 
lack  the  very  first  rudiments  of  knowledge,  for  fear 
lest  the  church  of  England  on  the  one  hand,  or  the 
dissenters  on  the  other,  might  gain  or  lose  a  portion 
of  influence,  according  as  the  instruction  of  the 
masses  in  the  arts  of  reading  and  writing  is  or  is 
not  placed  under  the  control  of  the  established 
clergy. 

Of  these  two  methods  of  suppressing  the  increase 
and  diffusion  of  knowledge,  and  of  keeping  the  con- 
trol of  the  element  of  power  in  a  few  hands,  the 
latter,  as  it  is  by  far  the  least  effectual,  so  it  is  the 
least  pernicious  in  its  operation.  For,  as  has  been 
most  sagaciously  remarked,*  "  It  is  one  of  the  pecu- 
liarities of  the  human  mind,  that»it  will  ultimately 
derive  truth  even  from  the  instruction  of  error ;  that 
however  carefully  developed  for  any  particular  pur- 
pose, the  development  itself  will  go  beyond  that 
purpose.  A  child  educated  in  bigotry  is  more  likely 
to  obtain  a  large  perception  of  religious  truth  than  a 
child  not  educated  at  all.  It  is  impossible  to  teach 
ignorance,  for  the  light  that  invades  and  illustrates 
at  the  same  time  dispels  the  darkness." 

*  Edinburgh  Eeview,  No.  160,  April,  1844.    Custine's  Russia. 


PRIMARY   ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  43 

Of  the  relative  operation  of  these  two  systems,  we 
may  observe  an  instructive  example  in  the  United 
States  of  America.  The  New  England  common 
schools  were  originally  established  chiefly  for  the 
maintenance  of  religious  orthodoxy ;  or,  in  the  terms 
of  the  law  by  which  they  were  made  general, 
(1649,)  to  counteract  the  projects  of  that  "old  deluder, 
Sathan,  in  persuading  men  from  the  use  of  tongues," 
giving  thereby  the  greater  scope  to  "  the  false 
glosses  of  saint-seeming  deceivers,  in  clouding  the 
true  sense  and  meaning "  of  the  Scriptures.  The 
school  system  was  thus  but  a  part  of  the  machinery 
of  the  early  New  England  theocracy,  and  the 
schools  were  long,  and  still  are,  very  much  under 
clerical  influence.  And  yet  the  fact  is  unquestionable, 
that  the  free  schools  of  New  England  have  been  the 
fountain  whence  has  flowed  the  whole  stream  of 
American  heresies,  from  those  of  Edwards  down- 
ward ;  at  least  all  which  tend,  like  those  of  Edwards, 
in  a  freethinking  direction.  Nor  is  it  less  certain 
that  a  freedom  of  speculative  inquiry  is  beginning 
plainly  to  develop  itself  in  that  same  quarter,  from 
which,  in  the  next  fifty  years,  some  fruits  may  be 
expected  worthy  of  notice. 

In  Virginia,  on  the  other  hand,  —  which,  with  many 
points  in  common,  may  yet  be  considered,  in  Ameri- 
can affairs,  as  the  antitype  of  New  England,  —  the 
other  system  has  prevailed.  In  answer  to  certain  in- 
quiries from  England,  in  1671,  Governor  Berkeley 
thanked  God  that  Virginia'  had  "  no  free  schools  nor 
printing,"  and  hoped  she  might  not  have  for  a  century, 
since  "  learning  has  brought  disobedience,  and  heresy, 


44  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

and  sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged 
them,  and  libels  against  the  best  government.  God 
keep  us  from  both."  The  hopes  of  this  loyal  and 
pious  governor  have  been,  alas  !  but  too  literally 
fulfilled ;  and  the  consequence  is,  that  Virginia,  to 
this  day,  prints  nothing  but  a  few  partisan  news- 
papers, while,  in  activity  of  intellect,  and  freedom  of 
speculative  inquiry,  and  even  in  learning,  the  present 
generation  is  vastly  behind  that  of  three  quarters  of  a 
century  ago.  There  were  more  ideas  in  the  head  of 
Thomas  Jefferson  alone  than  in  all  Virginia  at  this 
moment. 

SECTION  SIXTH. 
Eloquence. 

BUT  sagacity,  knowledge,  even  strength  of  will,  are 
often  to  a  great  extent  unavailing,  unless  aided  by 
ELOQUENCE,  which  is  the  power  of  exciting  in  other 
men's  minds  conceptions,  and  with  them  pleasures, 
pains,  and  desires ;  that  is  to  say,  motives  of  action. 
Eloquence  is  of  two  kinds  —  spoken  and  written. 
Written  eloquence  depends  entirely  upon  the  unas- 
sisted power  of  words  to  call  up  ideas.  Spoken 
eloquence  avails  itself  likewise  of  modulation  and 
action.  But  this  is  a  subject  which  belongs  more 
particularly  to  the  theory  of  Taste  —  the  name  em- 
ployed to  designate  a  sentiment,  or  combination  of 
sentiments,  generally  regarded  as  lying  somewhat 
out  of  the  line  of  ordinary  life,  but  with  a  much  more 
direct  bearing  upon  it,  and  a  more  predominating  in- 


PRIMARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  45 

fluence  over  it,  than  is  commonly  thought  of,  and 
which  might  well  form  by  itself  \he  subject  of  a 
separate  treatise. 

Of  spoken  eloquence,  the  clergy  have,  in  most 
countries  of  Christendom,  and  indeed  throughout  the 
world,  a  complete  monopoly.  They  alone  are  ac- 
customed or  permitted  to  address  promiscuous  as- 
semblies. It  is  only  in  Great  Britain,  the  British 
colonies,  and  the  United  States  of  America,  that 
spoken  eloquence  is  employed  to  any  considerable 
extent  for  lay  purposes. 

As  to  written  eloquence,  the  freedom  of  the  press  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  its  complete  operation,  in- 
deed, almost  to  its  very  existence ;  it  being  of  course 
limited  to  those  topics  upon  which  freedom  of  expres- 
sion is  allowed.  Where  it  has  free  scope,  or  even  a 
scope  partially  free,  it  is  capable  of  producing  immense 
effects.  The  eloquence  of  Rousseau  and  Voltaire 
occasioned  results  vastly  greater,  as  well  as  more  per- 
manent, than  the  eloquence  of  Demosthenes  and 
Cicero.  What,  indeed,  would  have  been  the  repu- 
tation even  of  those  famous  orators  had  they  not  been 
writers  as  well  ? 

The  restraints  which  have  been  put  upon  the 
liberty  of  the  press  have  been  intended  not  only  to 
prevent  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  and  so  to  keep 
the  community  ignorant,  weak,  and  obedient ;  they 
have  aimed  equally  at  preventing  those  who  possess 
the  gift  of  eloquence  from  exercising  that  gift,  and 
obtaining  thereby  an  influence  which  might  endanger, 
if  not  upset,  the  existing  distribution  of  power.  The 
power  which  mere  eloquence,  unsupported  by  either 


46  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

superior  sagacity  or  knowledge,  is  able  to  exert,  is 
sufficiently  evinced  by  the  fact,  that  of  all  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  press,  and  especially  of  the  periodical  press, 
for  one  page  that  aims  at  enlightening  the  under- 
standing, there  are  a  hundred,  of  which  the  sole 
object  is  to  stimulate  to  action  by  inflaming  the 
imagination  and  rousing  the  passions,  with  very  little 
regard  either  to  fact  or  reason ;  and  it  is  in  this  un- 
deniable state  of  the  case  that  the  most  plausible 
arguments  have  been  found  in  favor  of  restrictions 
upon  the  liberty  of  the  press. 


SECTION  SEVENTH. 
Virtue. 

THE  seventh  and  last  of  the  primary  elements 
of  power  is  VIRTUE,  —  by  which  word  we  here 
intend,  not  those  qualities,  often  so  called,  ac- 
tivity, courage,  fortitude,  policy,  and  perseverance 
hitherto  enumerated,  but  Virtue  in  its  proper  moral 
sense,  —  that  compound  sentiment,  which  prompts 
to  the  performance  of  disinterested  actions.  But, 
in  order  to  become  an  element  of  political  power, 
this  sentiment,  not  confining  itself  to  mere  private 
life,  must  be  displayed  under  the  form  called  Public 
Spirit,  or  Patriotism  ;  that  is,  in  conferring  disin- 
terested benefits  on  the  community. 

Hitherto  this  has  been  one  of  the  weakest  of  all  the 
elements  of  power ;  indeed,  many  have  denied  that 
it  is  an  element  of  power  at  all.  The  sagacious  and 


PRIMARY   ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  47 

keen-sighted  Machiavel  remarks,  that  he  who  aims  at 
power  has  no  need  of  virtue  itself,  but  only  of  the 
appearance  of  it;  the  appearance  of  virtue  being 
a  help,  while  the  reality  is  a  mere  impediment. 
And  there  is  a  great  deal  of  plausibility  in  this 
observation ;  for  it  is  sufficiently  certain,  that  while 
a  reputation  for  virtue  is,  in  many  states,  an  essential 
element  of  power,  and  in  all  states  a  help,  the  actual 
possession  of  it  proves  often  a  great  apparent  stum- 
bling block  to  the  attainment  of  political  eminence. 
But  then  there  are  two  things  to  be  considered ;  first, 
that  sensible  observation  of  Xenophon,  in  his  Cyro- 
paedia,  that  the  most  certain  means  to  obtain  a  repu- 
tation for  virtue,  is  to  be  actually  virtuous  ;  and 
secondly,  that  what  passes  as  political  advancement 
is  often  not  so  much  the  actual  obtaining  and  ex- 
ercise of  power,  as  it  is  the  attaining  of  a  certain 
official  station  and  administrative  dignity,  —  power 
at  second  hand,  —  by  becoming  the  instrument  of 
others ;  a  sort  of  power  at  the  best  more  like  that 
influence  which  an  adroit  and  supple  servant  may 
acquire  over  his  master,  and  his  master's  underlings, 
than  like  the  power  possessed  by  the  master  himself. 
Compare,  for  instance,  the  power  of  Washington 
—  one  main  support  of  which  was  virtue  —  with  the 
power  of  the  younger  Pitt,  or  of  Canning,  both  men 
of  superior  genius  and  great  accomplishments,  but 
who  threw  the  sternness  of  virtue  overboard  as  an 
impediment,  and  so  rose,  indeed,  to  the  head  of 
affairs ;  but  only  by  becoming  the  conscious  instru- 
ments of  a  bigoted  aristocracy,  which,  in  their  secret 
hearts,  they  hated  and  despised,  and  by  which  they 


48  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

were  constantly  thwarted,  whenever  they  desired  to 
act  in  conformity  to  their  own  more  liberal  ideas. 
It  will  indeed  often  be  found,  that  more  actual  power 
—  influence,  that  is,  over  the  progress  of  events  — 
is  exerted,  in  free  states,  by  those  whose  stubborn 
virtue  prevents  them  from  ever  becoming  heads  of 
administration,  than  by  those  supple  personages,  who, 
under  the  names  of  chief  magistrates,  or  prime  minis- 
ters, are  but  the  tools  of  a  faction,  a  party,  or  a  class. 
It  has  been  no  less  well  than  wittily  observed,  that  her 
majesty's  opposition  form  a  not  less  important  and 
essential  part  of  the  machinery  of  the  British  govern- 
ment than  her  majesty's  ministers. 


SECONDARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  49 


CHAPTER  III. 

SECONDARY  ELEMENTS   OF   POWER,    OR    EXTRINSIC 
SOURCES   OF  INEQUALITY. 


SECTION  FIRST. 
Wealth. 

So  obvious  is  the  connection  between  the  distribu- 
tion of  power  and  the  distribution  of  wealth,  that 
the  ingenious  Harrington  was  led  to  maintain,  in  his 
Oceana,  that  WEALTH  is  the  only  just  and  true  basis 
of  power.  That  book,  published  in  the  last  year  of 
the  English  Commonwealth,  undertook  to  show,  that 
wealth  had  become  so  diffused  in  England,  that 
monarchy  could  never  be  restored.  But,  as  Hume 
has  remarked,  the  falsehood  of  Harrington's  assump- 
tions, either  as  to  facts  or  theory,  or  both,  was 
abundantly  proved  by  the  quiet  reestablishment  of 
the  monarchy  within  that  very  year. 

The  circumstance,  indeed,  that  political  power  is 
so  generally  used  as  a  means  of  accumulating  wealth, 
so  that  wealth  and  power  are  almost  always  found  in 
company,  has  led  to  the  idea  of  a  more  intimate 
relation  between  them  than  actually  exists.  Nor  is 
there  any  more  fruitful  source  of  error,  whether  in 
philosophical  inquiries  or  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life, 
than  the  disposition  to  refer  every  effect  to  a  single 
cause ;  whereas  almost  all  the  phenomena  of  human 
society  result  from  a  combination,  and  often  a  very 
complicated  combination,  of  causes.  That  wealth  is 
5 


50  .  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

one,  and  a  very  potent  element  of  power,  cannot  be 
questioned;  and  yet  history  affords  many  instances 
in  which  power,  having  been  originally  founded  upon 
something  else,  —  as,  for  example,  upon  muscular 
strength,  and  military  skill  and  combination,  —  and 
having,  subsequently,  been  made  a  means  of  ac- 
cumulating wealth,  this  very  accumulation  of  wealth, 
tending  in  its  operation  to  weaken  the  original  basis 
of  the  power,  has  proved  unable  to  supply  the  defi- 
ciency thus  occasioned,  so  that  a  new  revolution  has 
been  the  consequence.  What  Sidonius  Apollinaris 
writes  of  the  Vandals  in  Africa, — 

Spoliisque  potitus 

Immensis,  robur  luxu  jam  perdidit  omne 
Quo  valuit  dum  pauper  erat,  — 

Possessed  of  spoils  immense, 
Through  luxury,  the  force  was  quickly  lost, 
So  potent  in  the  poor,  — 

will  equally  apply  to  most  of  the  barbarian  invaders 
of  the  Roman  empire. 

It  was,  indeed,  the  perception  of  this  operation  of 
wealth  upon  some  of  the  other  sources  of  power, 
especially  upon  muscular  strength  and  martial  skill 
and  endurance,  which  led  many  of  the  ancients  to 
look  upon  the  increase  of  wealth  as  a  positive  political 
evil.  Even  Machiavel  was  so  struck  with  the  supe- 
riority of  the  French,  Swiss,  and  German  troops  — 
a  set  of  hardy  barbarians,  like  the  Cossacks  of  the 
present  day  —  over  the  more  civilized  inhabitants  of 
Italy,  as  displayed  in  the  Italian  wars  of  his  time, 
that  he  was  led  to  controvert  the  maxim  which  had 
become  common  in  Italy,  that  money  is  the  sinews 
of  war,  and  to  maintain  that  the  true  sinews  of  war 


SECONDARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  51 

were  the  sinews  of  men's  arms.  Yet  modern  ex- 
perience serves  to  confirm  the  truth  of  the  Italian 
maxim. 

Why  wealth  is  an  element  of  power  is  sufficiently 
obvious.  There  are  many  things  that  cannot  be  done, 
or,  more  correctly,  there  are  very  few  things  that  can 
be  done,  without  a  certain  supply  of  the  means  of 
comfortably  sustaining  life,  while  the  process  is  going 
on  necessary  to  their  accomplishment  —  a  process 
which  often  demands,  through  a  protracted  period, 
the  most  devoted  and  undivided  attention.  A 
certain  degree  of  leisure,  of  freedom  from  the  con- 
stantly-pressing necessity  of  daily  labor  to  provide 
for  daily  wants,  is  essential  to  afford  an  opportunity 
for  the  primary  elements  of  power  to  come  into  play. 
Besides,  there  are  comparatively  few  things  which 
can  be  accomplished  by  the  mere  unassisted  faculties 
of  man.  Tools  to  operate  with,  and  materials  to 
operate  upon,  are  necessary ;  and  the  possession  of 
these  is  wealth.  So  much  for  the  connection  between 
wealth  and  power  in  general.  The  connection  be- 
tween wealth  and  political  power  —  that  is,  power 
over  other  men  —  is  not  less  obvious.  He  who  pos- 
sesses the  means  of  conferring  pleasures,  or  inflicting 
pains,  upon  others,  possesses  a  power  over  them  pro- 
portioned to  the  potency  of  those  means.  Thus  the 
rich  are  able  to  purchase  up,  and  to  appropriate 
to  their  own  use,  the  assistance  and  service  of 
strength,  dexterity,  sagacity,  knowledge,  eloquence, 
in  fact,  every  one  of  the  primary  elements  of  power 
except  virtue,  and  if  not  that,  the  appearance  of  it, 
which  many  times  answers  the  same  purpose.  And 


52  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

in  addition  to  this  process  of  aggregation,  the 
nature  and  operation  of  which  will  be  more  fully 
expiated  hereafter,  the  rich,  also,  from  the  com- 
parative smallness  of  their  number,  and  for  other 
reasons,  possess  great  facilities  for  combination, 
which,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  is  another  of  the 
secondary  elements  of  power. 

There  is  still  anotherway  in  which  wealth  operates, 
to  no  inconsiderable  extent,  to  procure  or  to  cor- 
roborate political  power ;  and  that  is,  by  exciting  in 
the  minds  of  the  multitude,  by  a  judicious  display, 
agreeable  feelings,  compounded  of  admiration  and  of 
those  pleasures  arising  from  the  perception  of  the 
beautiful  and  the  harmonious,  intermingled  with  that 
moral  pleasure  which  arises  from  the  contemplation 
of  the  polite  and  decorous,  the  lesser  morality  ;  which 
compound  pleasure  the  subject  class  derive  from 
contemplating,  at  a  distance  and  at  intervals,  the 
splendid  and  polished  life  of  their  superiors.  Hence 
the  shows  and  formalities  of  courts,  and  that  pomp 
of  dresses,  equipage,  and  ceremonials,  regarded,  and 
not  without  reason,  as  a  potent  means  of  influencing 
and  ruling  mankind.  This,  surely,  is  one  of  the 
most  innocent  means  of  augmenting  power,  since  it 
confers  no  inconsiderable  amount  of  pleasure  upon 
the  admiring  multitude  ;  but,  unfortunately,  it  hap- 
pens that  the  admiring  multitude  seldom  enjoys  this 
pleasure  of  admiration  for  nothing,  being  made  to 
pay  for  it,  not  only  an  equivalent  in  submission,  but 
too  often  an  equivalent  of  money  also,  since  such 
shows  are  commonly  exhibited  at  the  public  expense. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  wealth  must  always  tend 


SECONDARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  53 

to  increase,  in  certain  very  important  particulars,  the 
political  power  of  its  possessors.  When  it  operates 
to  diminish  their  power,  that  operation  is  always 
indirect,  through  the  tendency  of  wealth,  after  the 
accumulation  of  it  has  passed  a  certain  limit,  to 
diminish,  by  the  indulgences  of  which  it  furnishes 
the  means,  the  strength,  skill,  and  self-control,  and 
even  the  sagacity,  knowledge,  and  virtue,  but 
especially  the  activity,  courage,  perseverance,  and 
fortitude,  of  those  who  possess  it. 

This  operation  is  very  remarkabfe,  and  is  worthy 
of  particular  attention.  All  the  other  sources  of 
power  combine  and  play,  as  it  were,  into  each  other's 
hands.  But  when  to  all  these  sources  of  power 
great  wealth  is  added,  —  all  those  other  sources  being 
employed  as  means  to  accumulate  wealth,  —  that 
very  wealth,  thus  accumulated,  by  the  indolence  and 
luxury  to  which  it  leads,  sooner  or  later  weakens  and 
undermines  all  the  other  sources  of  power,  and  thus, 
by  an  operation  the  least  expected,  often  produces 
political  revolutions. 

This  consideration,  duly  weighed,  ought  surely  to 
diminish  the  rapacity  of  the  ruling  classes  —  a  ra- 
pacity which  tends  doubly  to  revolution  ;  first,  by 
exciting  violent  pains  of  inferiority  and  disappoint- 
ment, if  not  pains  of  hunger  and  disease,  and  along 
with  them  a  high  degree  of  malevolence  in  the  subject 
class ;  and  secondly,  by  producing  a  concentration 
of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  ruling  class,  which,  in 
the  end,  produces,  as  to  them,  a  great  diminution  of 
the  primary  intrinsic  elements  of  power,  thus  sac- 
rificing the  substance  to  the  shadow. 
5* 


54  THEORY  OF  POLITICS. 

SECTION  SECOND. 
Traditionary  Respect. 

WHERE  a  father,  from  any  cause^ias  been  in  pos- 
session of  a  high  degree  of  power,  by  that  law  of  the 
association  of  ideas  which  may  be  called  the  law  of 
contiguity,  men  are  led  to  expect  the  same  qualities 
in  his  child ;  and,  till  experience  prove  the  contrary, 
—  and  often,  indeed,  in  spite  of  experience,  —  to  give 
the  child  credit  for  possessing  them  ;  an  association 
which  becomes  stronger  as  the  period  increases  during 
which  power  has  been  in  the  family.  There  is  com- 
monly, also,  a  certain  external  resemblance  between 
fathers  and  children,  and,  indeed,  between  ancestors 
and  descendants  much  more  remote  ;  and  that  law  of 
the  association  of  ideas,  which  may  be  called  the  law 
of  resemblance,  leads  us  to  expect  a  resemblance  in 
other  particulars  also.  Moreover,  the  child,  growing 
up  under  the  roof  of  its  father,  and  being  its  father's 
well  beloved,  shares,  from  infancy,  some  portion  of 
that  admiration  and  respect  which  belong  to  the 
father ;  so  that  the  habit  of  respect  and  admiration 
becomes  established  long  before  it  appears  whether 
there  is  any  just  foundation  for  them  or  not.  Upon 
this  basis  rests  the  influence  of  family,  blood,  descent ; 
an  influence  which  has  operated,  and  which  still 
operates,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  even  in  com- 
munities reckoned  the  most  democratic. 


SECONDARY  ELEMENTS  OF  POWER.  55 

SECTION  THIRD. 
The  Idea  of  Property  in  Power. 

PROPERTY  has  been  most  ingeniously,  and  at  the 
same  time  justly,  denned  by  Bentham  as  merely  a 
basis  of  expectation  —  the  expectation  of  deriving 
certain  advantages  from  a  thing  which  we  are  said 
to  possess  in  consequence  of  the  relation  in  which 
we  stand  towards  it ;  the  idea  of  property  consisting, 
not  in  any  mere  circumstances  of  physical  control,  — 
which  may  be  present  or  absent,  —  but  in  the  per- 
suasion of  being  able  to  draw  such  or  such  an 
advantage  from  the  thing  in  question,  according  to 
its  nature.  Now,  this  idea  of  property  —  this  ex- 
pectation —  is  just  as  able  to  attach  itself  to  political 
power  as  to  any  thing  else.  Where  the  exercise  of 
power  has,  for  any  length  of  time,  become  fixed  in 
the  hands  of  certain  families,  or  in  those  of  a  par- 
ticular caste,  or  in  the  possessors  of  certain  landed 
or  other  property,  or  even  in  the  mere  members  of 
a  certain  party  or  religious  sect,  there  soon  springs 
up  an  expectation  that  this  order  of  things  will  be 
continued.  Those  who  have  the  qualification  of 
birth,  or  property,  or  party  connection,  soon  come  to 
look  upon  office  as  their  freehold,  the  possession  of 
power  as  their  moral  right,  and  obedience  as  the 
moral  duty  of  the  subject  class ;  and  this  opinion  is 
often  adopted  by,  and  exercises  a  powerful  influence 
over,  the  subject  class  itself.  It  is  doubtless  true, 
that  property  in  power  is  a  sort  of  property  detrimental 
to  the  community,  and  which  ought  not  to  be  allowed 


56  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

to  exist.  But  the  same  is  true  of  property  in  slaves, 
which,  however,  is  a  kind  of  property  which  has  had 
an  existence  almost  universal,  and  which  still  con- 
tinues to  be  very  generally  recognized. 


SECTION  FOURTH. 
Influence  of  'Mystical  Ideas. 

WE  come  now  to  the  consideration  of  an  element 
of  power  very  much  overlooked  by  writers  upon 
politics,  but  which  has  exercised,  nevertheless,  mi 
influence  more  potent  and  extensive,  perhaps,  than 
any,  if  not  than  all  others. 

In  a  community  in  which  mystical  ideas  prevail,  — 
and  as  they  spring  from  obvious  sources  innate  in 
man,  their  prevalence  is  universal,  —  if  any  individual 
can  succeed  in  persuading  the  rest  that  he  is  the 
chosen  favorite  and  selected  messenger  of  the  Deity, 
it  is  evident  that  he  will  at  once  be  raised  to  a  position 
of  infinite  superiority  over  them,  since  to  his  other 
titles  to  power  he  is  able  to  add,  at  least  in  the  opinion 
of  his  associates,  —  an  opinion,  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses, equivalent  to  reality,  —  all  the  attributes  of 
Deity  itself.  What  more  calculated  to  subdue  at 
once,  by  the  combined  operation  of  admiration  and 
fear,  all  opposition  ?  Those  governments  which  have 
exercised  the  most  unlimited  authority  have  all  been 
theocracies  —  governments,  that  is,  of  which  the 
administrators  claimed  to  be  the  special  favorites, 
and  representatives,  and  chosen  vicegerents  of  the 
Deity ;  among  which  number  are  to  be  reckoned 


SECONDARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  57 

some  of  the  most  splendid  empires  which  the  world 
has  seen. 

With  respect  to  the  founders  of  theocratic  em- 
pires, and  others,  who,  without  founding  empires,  rise, 
by  similar  means,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  power 
of  which  the  instances  are  innumerable,  the  hypothe- 
sis, which  has  been  maintained  £y  some  writers,  of 
pure  hypocrisy  and  imposture  on  their  part,  (as  in  the 
noted  instances  of  Mohammed  and  Cromwell,)  is 
utterly  untenable.  The  well-known  maxim  of  Hor- 
ace, that  he  who  would  move  others  must  first  be 
moved  himself,  is  perfectly  applicable  to  these  cases. 
For  a  man  to  be  able  to  impress  others  to  any  extent 
with  the  idea  that  he  has  received  a  special  divine 
commission  to  command,  direct,  and  teach,  it  is  es- 
sential that  he  should  first  persuade  himself  of  the 
same  thing ;  which  easily  happens  whenever  an  un- 
hesitating and  zealous  reception  of  the  mystic  hypoth- 
esis is  united  to  a  lively  imagination,  a  contemplative 
disposition,  and  the  influence  of  the  sentiment  of  self- 
comparison,  operating  in  an  extraordinary  degree  upon 
souls  to  whom  the  paths  of  secular  ambition  do  not  lie 
open.  Tacitus  has  set  forth  the  true  character  of  this 
remarkable  class  of  men  in  three  words :  Fingunt  simul 
credunlque  —  they  feign  and  believe  simultaneously. 
To  impress  their  pretended  revelations  upon  others, 
mere  asseveration  will  not  suffice.  They  must  them- 
selves set  the  example  of  implicit  belief  in  their  own 
inventions  —  an  example  pretty  sure  to  be  efficacious, 
since  there  is  nothing  more  contagious  than  credulity. 
Belief,  in  such  cases,  is,  indeed,  seldom  or  never  an 
act  of  reason.  So  great  is  sometimes  the  fear,  and 
sometimes  the  admiration,  but  oftener  both,  excited 


58  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

in  susceptible  minds  by  the  suggestion  or  contempla- 
tion of  ideas  adapted  to  affect  them,  that  these  excited 
emotions  prompt  at  once  to  headlong  action,  without 
leaving  time,  capacity,  or  disposition  to  distinguish 
between  facts  and  chimeras.  In  such  cases,  the  bare 
suggestion  of  a  doubt  is  resented  as  an  injury,  by 
those  who  imagine,  themselves  the  possessors  of  a 
wonderful  discovery,  a  special  divine  communication, 
which  elevates  those  intrusted  with  it  into  a  superior 
order  —  a  spiritual  aristocracy. 

This  sincerity,  however,  —  this  belief  in  their  own 
divine  mission,  —  on  the  part  of  these  mystic  leaders, 
so  far  from  preventing  the  frequent  employment,  on 
their  part,  of  craft,  downright  falsehood,  and  presently 
of  force,  so  soon  as  they  are  in  a  position  to  resort  to 
it,  justifies,  in  their  view,  the  use  of  any  means  what- 
ever which  may  seem  necessary  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  their  purposes.  He  who  considers  himself 
the  special  agent  and  selected  vicegerent  of  the  Deity, 
and  not  only  so,  but  himself  able  to  control,  at  least 
to  a  certain  extent,  the  divine  actions,  —  for  to  that 
full  length  go  the  commonly-received  notions  among 
all  nations  of  the  efficacy  and  power  of  prayer,  —  any 
person  possessed  of  these  notions,  and  educated  in 
that  mystical  theory  of  morals  so  generally  prevalent, 
which  makes  the  divine  pleasure  the  foundation  of  all 
moral  distinctions,  very  easily  imagines  his  own  will 
and  that  of  the  Deity  to  be  the  same,  and  very  easily 
substitutes  his  own  will,  under  the  idea  of  its  being 
the  divine  will,  as  the  true  foundation  and  actual  test, 
for  the  time  being,  of  right  and  wrong.  Hence  the 
power  which  all  these  mystical  leaders  have,  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  assumed  of  forgiving  sins, 


SECONDARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  59 

dispensing  with  the  moral  law,  and  of  relieving  from 
the  obligation  of  oaths  and  promises. 

We  may  observe,  however,  of  mysticism,  as  of  all 
the  other  secondary  elements  of  power,  that  being 
essentially  secondary  in  its  operation,  in  order  to 
become  of  any  consequence  in  politics,  it  must  be 
conjoined  with  those  primary  elements  —  activity, 
courage,  fortitude,  policy,  and  perseverance.  Disjoined 
from  these  qualities,  mysticism  subsides  into  a  mere 
dreamy,  idle,  contemplative  state,  changing  men  into 
hermits  and  devotees,  absorbed  in  prostrate  and  hum- 
ble adoration,  without  the  hope,  or,  indeed,  the  wish, 
of  affecting,  in  the  slightest  degree,  the  course  of 
events,  regarded  by  the  mystic  hypothesis  as  im- 
mediate and  inevitable  emanations  from  the  divine 
will,  which  men,  more  inclined  to  reflect  than  to 
act,  absorbed  in  admiration  and  awe,  are  too  reason- 
ably humble  to  presume  to  wish  to  control. 

It  is  worthy  of  observation,  also,  that  mystical 
founders  of  new  sects  and  empires  very  seldom  call 
upon  their  followers  to  disbelieve  any  thing.  What 
they  ask  of  their  converts  is,  not  to  believe  less,  but 
to  believe  more.  It  was  thus  that  Mohammed  ad- 
mitted the  truth  of  both  Judaism  and  Christianity, 
and  to  a  certain  extent,  also,  of  that  system  of  pagan- 
ism which  prevailed  throughout  Arabia  prior  to  his 
time.  Nor  have  Protestant  critics  failed  to  point  out 
how  the  corrupt  Papal  church  gradually  absorbed  and 
recognized  all  the  preexisting  creeds  of  the  various 
countries  and  nations  to  which  Christianity  spread. 
There  seems,  indeed,  to  be  very  little  doubt  that  the 
Orthodox  view  of  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity,  as  finally 
settled  by  the  decisions  of  the  earlier  general  councils, 


60  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

took  its  origin  with  speculatists  who  regarded  Plato 
with  little,  if  any,  less  reverence  than  Christ ;  and  it 
still  remains  a  curious  object  of  historical  research, 
how  far  the  doctrine  of  the  incarnation  is  to  be  traced 
to  the  influence  of  Buddhist  missionaries,  wTho,  at  or 
before  the  Christian  era,  appear  to  have  penetrated 
towards  Europe,  as  well  as  into  China.  What  is 
more  certain  is,  that,  as  the  Christian  religion  spread 
through  the  Roman  provinces,  it  not  only  adopted  a 
large  part  of  the  pagan  ceremonies,  converting  the 
pagan  festivals  into  saint  days,  but  that  it  admitted 
the  whole  heathen  mythology,  with  the  trifling  modi- 
fication, that  the  heathen  gods  were  not  gods,  but 
only  demons,  or  devils ;  the  famous  Magian  doctrine 
of  the  two  principles  being  thus  employed  to  reconcile 
the  pagan  and  Christian  creeds  —  an  idea,  of  which 
Milton  admirably  availed  himself,  first  in  his  Christ- 
mas Hymn,  and  afterwards  more  elaborately  in  the 
first  book  of  Paradise  Lost. 

As  the  Christian  religion  spread  among  the  German 
and  Celtic  tribes,  it  adopted  also  a  large  part  of  their 
mythology  ;  and  among  the  northern  nations,  at  least, 
the  doctrine  of  witchcraft  and  of  fairies,  derived  from 
those  sources,  became  so  ingrafted  into  the  Christian 
faith,  that  to  ridicule  or  to  deny  the  existence  of 
witches  was  looked  upon,  down  to  a  very  recent  pe- 
riod, as  little  better  than  atheism. 

In  like  manner,  in  later  times,  those  who  have  at- 
tempted to  establish  new  views  in  religion  in  those 
countries  in  which  the  Christian  doctrine  is  generally 
received,  as  in  Great  Britain,  Germany,  and  America, 
have  admitted  the  supernatural  origin  of  Christianity, 
and  built  upon  it  —  as  the  Quakers,  the  Moravians, 


SECONDARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  61 

the  Swedenborgians,  the  Shakers,  the  Irvingites,  the 
Mormons.  In  modern  France,  where  Christianity 
among  the  educated  has,  in  a  measure,  died  out,  the 
new  sects,  such  as  the  St.  Simonians,  have  attempted 
to  build  upon  the  prevailing  system  of  Deism. 

Mystical  ideas,  in  their  influence  upon  politics, 
present  themselves  under  three  very  distinct  forms. 
First,  as  Superstition,  that  influence  of  mysticism  which 
keeps  those  under  it  in  a  state  of  abject,  unquestion- 
ing, willing  submission,  at  the  feet  of  those  claiming 
to  be  God's  vicegerents.  Secondly,  as  Bigotry,  the 
influence  of  mystical  ideas  over  those  whose  superi- 
ority rests  upon  them  —  an  influence  which  makes 
them  look  with  fear  and  hatred  upon  every  thing 
which  has  a  tendency  to  diminish  the  power  of 
those  ideas.  Thirdly,  as  Fanaticism,  that  influence  of 
mystical  ideas  which,  in  leading  men  to  believe  that 
they  themselves  have  received  a  special  and  peculiar 
inspiration  and  commission  from  the  Deity,  induces 
them  to  set  up  first  as  religious  reformers,  teachers, 
and  messengers  of  Heaven,  and  presently  as  founders 
of  theocracies  —  for,  wherever  the  least  opening  for  it 
appears,  there  is  seldom  a  failure  to  act  upon  the  doc- 
trine that  the  saints  shall  inherit  the  earth.  Though 
in  some  points  very  divergent,  and  even  hostile,  yet  all 
these  operations  of  mystical  ideas  are  also  more  or 
less  coincident,  and  very  easily  run  into  each  other. 

But  if  mysticism  has  been  one  of  the  greatest 
sources  of  inequality  among  men,  —  greater,  indeed, 
we  may  say,  than  all  the  other  secondary  elements 
of  power  combined,  —  and,  in  consequence,  one  of 
the  chief  supports  of  government,  it  has  also  been, 
6 


62  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

from  that  same  circumstance,  one  of  the  most  tremen- 
dous agents  of  revolution.  So  long  as  there  exists  a 
coincidence  or  harmony  between  the  religious  and  the 
political  heads  of  a  nation,  superstition  and  bigotry 
are  the  firmest  supports  of  the  government ;  and  even 
fanaticism  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  —  to  a  partial 
extent  at  least  —  of  the  founders  of  the  mendicant 
orders  in  the  Romish  church,  and  of  the  Society  of 
the  Jesuits,  may  lend  its  powerful  aid  to  the  same 
side.  But  whenever,  from  any  cause,  this  harmony 
is  destroyed,  whether  by  changes  of  opinion  taking 
place  on  the  part  of  the  governors  or  of  the  governed, 
superstition,  bigotry,  and  fanaticism  become  alike  the 
most  dangerous  enemies  of  those  in  power.  Thus 
we  can  easily  understand  how  the  English  High 
Church  party  are  such  violent  denouncers  in  Ireland 
of  superstition  and  bigotry,  and  at  the  same  time 
such  zealous  promoters  of  them  in  England;  and  also 
how  it  happens,  in  English  history,  that  almost  all  of 
the  enthusiasts  in  religion  have  been  of  the  liberal 
party  in  politics.  Hence,  also,  we  may  see  why  it  is, 
that  states  governed  theocratically,  although  the  power 
of  the  governors  and  the  submission  of  the  governed 
be  most  unlimited,  are  still  liable  to  sudden  and  vio- 
lent revolutions.  For  the  mystical  ideas  upon  which 
the  political  and  social  institutions  of  such  states  rest 
may,  at  any  time,  assume  a  fanatical  operation,  —  as 
frequently  happens  in  Mohammedan  states,  —  and  so 
may  produce  an  entire  reconstruction  of  the  whole 
political  fabric. 


SECONDARY  ELEMENTS  OF  POWER.  63 

SECTION  FIFTH. 
Combination. 

THERE  remain  to  be  considered  two  other  elements 
of  power,  which  may  be  regarded  as  secondary,  not 
only  in  respect  to  those  which  we  have  classed  as 
primary,  but  also  in  regard  to  the  four  secondary 
elements  already  enumerated.  These  are  COMBINA- 
TION and  AGGREGATION,  by  means  of  which  a  smaller 
united  force,  acting  under  one  head  and  guidance, 
is  able  to  overcome  a  far  larger  force,  dispersed,  un- 
combined,  and  acting  without  concert.  It  is  by 
virtue  of  these  principles  that  a  small  band  of  soldiers, 
drilled,  disciplined,  and  acting  together,  is  able  to 
keep  under  a  vastly  greater  body  of  men  dispersed, 
and  without  mutual  understanding  or  cooperation. 

The  increase  of  force  gained  by  combination  will 
enable  us  to  understand  why  so  many  despotic  gov- 
ernments take  such  extraordinary  means  to  prevent 
and  suppress  combinations  among  their  subjects  ; 
whence  have  originated  laws  against  the  right  of 
petition,  laws  against  public  assemblies,  laws  against 
associations,  and  a  portion  of  the  laws  in  restraint  of 
the  liberty  of  the  press. 

A  petition  to  the  governing  authority,  setting  forth 
alleged  grievances  and  praying  for  redress,  is  not  only 
an  appeal  to  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  governors, 
it  is  also  a  method  of  combination,  a  means  of  exhibit- 
ing the  numerical  force  of  the  petitioners,  and  of 
making  their  strength  known  to  each  other,  as  well  as 
to  the  government.  Where  the  petitioners  are  very 


()4  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

numerous,  what  is  a  petition  in  form  may  assume,  in 
fact,  the  character  of  a  rally  or  a  threat.  This  is  the 
reason  why,  at  times,  the  right  of  petition  has  been 
denied  or  resisted,  and  why  attempts  have  been  made 
to  suppress  it  by  law.  So  long  as  petitions  come  from 
one  only,  or  a  few,  no  government  ever  makes  any 
attempt  to  suppress  the  right ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
rather  encouraged,  those  who  possess  the  political 
authority  making  a  sort  of  ostentatious  exhibition  of 
their  readiness  to  listen  to  complaints.  It  is  only 
when  the  petitioners  are  numerous,  when  it  becomes 
evident  that  there  are  a  large  number  combined  and 
acting  together,  that  those  in  authority  take  the  alarm, 
and  attempt  to  defeat  or  abridge  this  privilege.  The 
conduct  of  the  English  House  of  Commons,  respecting 
petitions  for  parliamentary  reform,  in  1817  and  1818, 
and  that  of  the  American  Congress,  in  1835  and 
subsequently,  respecting  petitions  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  afford  illustrations 
of  this  fact. 

Much  more  formidable  than  petitions,  however 
numerously  signed,  are  assemblies  of  the  people,  held 
for  the  discussion  of  political  topics.  Great  masses 
of  men,  thus  brought  together,  may  perhaps  break  out 
into  sudden  rebellion,  and  may  employ  their  combined 
strength  for  the  overthrow  of  the  government.  Such 
musters  of  the  popular  militia  tend  strongly  to 
remind  the  people  of  their  strength,  and  may  prove 
more  than  a  match  for  the  standing  army  of  the  con- 
stituted authorities. 

Organized  political  associations  are  even  more 
formidable  than  public  meetings,  because  in  this  way 
a  regular  plan  may  be  matured,  and  all  the  means 


SECONDARY    ELEMENTS    OE    POWER.  65 

may  be  arranged  and  provided,  for  transferring  the 
authority  of  government  into  new  hands.  The  ex- 
perience of  the  last  sixty  years  has  shown  very  fully 
how  much  may  be  accomplished  by  the  combined 
force  of  affiliated  clubs  and  organized  associations. 
We  need  not  wonder,  therefore,  at  the  extreme 
jealousy  with  which,  in  all  despotic  governments,  all 
such  combinations  are  regarded,  and  have  been 
suppressed,  from  the  period  of  the  Roman  empire 
downward. 

The  liberty  of  the  press  on  political  topics,  besides  the 
other  purposes  which  it  serves,  is  also  a  grand  means 
of  political  organization.  It  affords  a  medium  where- 
by those  having  common  interests  and  sympathies 
may,  however  scattered  and  separated,  keep  up  a 
constant  communication  with  each  other.  A  news- 
paper is  a  sort  of  speaking  trumpet,  whereby  the 
leaders  of  a  party  communicate  with  their  followers ; 
directing  them  how  to  act,  and  stimulating  their  zeal 
and  courage  by  constant  exhortations.  This  circum- 
stance alone  would  be  sufficient  to  explain  the  fierce 
hostility  of  so  many  governments  to  the  liberty  of  the 
press. 

Of  the  effect  of  combination  a  striking  instance  is 
afforded  by  the  "caucus  system"  of  America.  No 
doubt  something  of  the  same  sort  has  existed  in  most 
democratic  governments  ;  but,  owing  to  the  large 
scale  on  which  elections  are  held  in  America,  (a  wide 
extent  of  territory  and  a  large  population  participating 
often  in  the  choice  of  a  single  officer,)  it  has  attained 
there  a  special  development.  Though,  by  an  ap- 
proach to  universal  suffrage  hardly  to  be  paralleled 
elsewhere,  almost  the  entire  free  adult  male  popu- 
6* 


66  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

lation  of  the  United  States  possesses  the  right,  and 
nominally  the  equal  right,  to  participate  in  the  choice 
of  legislators  and  magistrates,  yet  that  selection,  by 
a  process  wholly  unknown  to  the  written  law,  though 
none  the  less  on  that  account  a  part  of  the  system  as 
it  exists  in  practice,  is  in  fact  substantially  determined 
by  a  very  limited  number.  The  designation  of  can- 
didates for  office,  whether  municipal,  state,  or  national, 
is  assumed  by  certain  voluntary  affiliated  associations, 
under  the  name  of  parties,  as  many  generally  as  there 
are  considerable  portions  of  the  people,  taking  differ- 
ent view*  of  the  public  interest ;  and  it  is  only  by 
joining  and  acting  with  one  of  these  parties,  and  as 
the  candidate  of  it,  that  any  body  can  hope  to  be 
elected  to  any  office.  These  parties  are  led  and 
managed,  in  fact  constituted,  by  a  small  number  of 
men,  commonly  known  as  politicians,  who  feel,  or  at 
least  who  profess,  a  special  concern  in  the  public  wel- 
fare, which,  in  general,  they  are  not  at  all  indisposed 
to  promote  by  serving  the  public  themselves  in  sta- 
tions of  honor  and  profit.  There  are,  indeed,  among 
these  politicians  by  profession,  a  large  number  of 
pure  mercenaries,  ready  to  act  with  any  party  that 
will  give  them  office,  and  anxious  only  to  discover 
and  to  attach  themselves  to  the  strongest  side,  upon 
which  side,  of  course,  the  larger  part  of  them  may  be 
expected  to  be  found.  Each  of  these  parties  has  its 
nominating  committees,  or  conventions,  —  township, 
city,  county,  district,  state,  and  national,  —  appointed, 
according  to  certain  unwritten  "  party  usages,"  by 
primary  meetings  commonly  known  as  caucuses, 
which,  however,  are  composed  in  general  only  of  the 
more  active  politicians,  and  the  action  of  which  is 


SECONDARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  67 

chiefly  determined  by  the  secret  contrivance  and 
management  of  a  still  smaller  number.  In  the  con- 
stitution of  these  committeesr  the  grossest  frauds,  and 
even  open  violence,  are  occasionally  employed  ;  es- 
pecially where,  by  the  predominancy  of  the  party 
which  it  represents,  the  committee  has  many  lucrative 
offices  at  its  disposal  —  usurpations  which  it  is  not 
uncommon  for  parties  in  America  to  submit  to,  as 
quietly  and  coolly  as  have  the  French  people  to  the 
usurpations  of  the  Bonapartes,  and,  for  the  sake  of 
peace,  and  union  against  a  rival  faction,  to  confirm 
them  too,  in  like  manner,  by  their  votes. 

By  committees,  or  caucuses,  thus  constituted,  all 
nominations  to  office  are  made ;  all  that  is  left  to  the 
body  of  the  citizens  being  the  choice  between  gen- 
erally not  more  than  two  individuals,  neither  of 
whom,  as  it  often  happens,  would,  apart  from  this 
preliminary  nomination,  have  any  special  hold  on 
the  electors. 

The  caucus  system  thus  becomes  a  contrivance  for 
the  distribution  of  offices  among  men  more  distin- 
guished for  intrigue  than  for  talent,  who,  by  mutual 
combination  and  support,  and  by  serving  each  other's 
turns,  are  often  raised  to  elevations,  sometimes  very 
high  ones,  to  which,  by  their  own  unassisted  efforts, 
they  could  scarcely  have  attained. 

Yet,  while  these  caucus  politicians  thus  take  upon 
themselves  the  aristocratical  function  of  dictating  to 
the  people,  they  play,  at  the  same  time,  a  democratic 
part,  by  humbling  and  restraining  within  due  limits 
those  possessors  of  the  natural  elements  of  power, 
whom  the  strong  tendency  to  "  hero  worship,"  even  in 
the  most  democratic  communities,  might  otherwise 
be  likely  to^fevate  to  a  dangerous  authority. 


68  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

So  potent,  however,  are  the  natural  elements  of 
power,  that  even  these  caucus  combinations  are 
obliged  to  respect  them,  being  not  only  made  to  feel 
the  force  of  them  in  their  own  internal  constitution 
and  procedures,  but  in  their  nominations,  also,  to  pay 
a  certain  respect  to  that  inevitable  admiration  with 
which  the  body  of  the  people  always  regard  men  of 
superior  endowments,  real  or  reputed. 


SECTION  SIXTH. 
Aggregation. 

WHERE  there  is  a  voluntary  union  of  strength  for 
the  accomplishment  of  a  common  object,  we  call  it 
Combination.  AGGREGATION  is  an  element  of  power 
similar  in  its  nature  and  effect,  and  still  more  general 
in  its  operation  and  influence,  but  differing  in  one 
important  particular. 

In  the  case  of  combination,  the  parties  stand  upon 
a  certain  level  of  equality,  or  something  approaching 
towards  it,  the  combination  being  on  their  part  a 
thing  more  or  less  voluntary,  and  for  the  mutual 
benefit  of  all  the  parties  to  it.  Aggregation  is  where 
one,  or  a  number  of  individuals,  having  established  an 
influence  and  control  over  others,  more  or  less  com- 
plete, through  the  agency  of  the  other  elements  of 
power,  or  some  of  them,  are  able,  by  means  of  that 
influence  and  control,  to  use  the  strength  of  those 
others  as  if  it  were  their  own,  and  to  employ  it  in 
giving  to  their  influence  and  control  a  still  further 
extension.  By  this  aggregation  of  power,  one  single 


SECONDARY    ELEMENTS    OF    POWER.  69 

individual  —  as  in  the  case  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  — 
may  come  to  control  an  entire  community,  nay,  a 
vast  empire.  Power  has  indeed  a  tendency  to  in- 
crease in  a  triplicate  ratio.  As  it  becomes  greater, 
not  only  does  it  inspire  the  greater  dread  in  those 
who  might  otherwise  be  inclined  to  resist  it,  but  the 
admiration  it  excites  and  the  favors  it  can  confer  both 
increase  in  the  same  proportion.  So  much  indeed 
is  the  multitude  disposed  to  admiration  and  reverence, 
so  profound  is  the  worship  paid  to  power,  that  we 
need  not  wonder  that  some  conquerors  and  others 
have  been  persuaded,  by  the  abject  devotedness  ex- 
hibited in  their  service,  to  regard  themselves  as 
children  of  destiny,  sons  of  God,  indeed  as  them- 
selves gods. 

SECTION  SEVENTH. 
Illustration  from  the  Iliad. 

THE  poem  of  the  Iliad  presents  quite  a  complete 
illustration  of  the  operation  of  all  the  elements  of 
power,  —  both  the  primary  and  the  secondary,  —  being 
in  this  respect  no  less  true  to  nature  than  in  so  many 
others. 

Activity,  courage,  fortitude,  and  perseverance  are 
qualities  common,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  to  all 
the  heroes  of  that  poem.  They  all  also  owe  a  part 
of  their  consequence  to  traditionary  respect,  to  the 
idea  of  property  in  power,  and  to  the  influence  of 
mystical  ideas ;  for  they  are  not  only  chieftains  by 
descent,  but  are  descended  from  the  gods,  who  still 
remain  interested  in  their  welfare.  Ajax  personifies 


70  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

bodily  strength  and  courage  ;  Achilles,  strength, 
courage,  dexterity  in  the  use  of  arms,  and  force  of 
will  ;  Ulysses,  sagacity,  policy,  and  eloquence ;  Nes- 
tor, eloquence,  sagacity,  and  knowledge  ;  Agamem- 
non, wealth  and  traditional  respect  in  a  particular 
degree  ;  Hector,  patriotic  virtue.  The  union  and 
disunion  of  the  chiefs  exhibit  the  effects  of  combina- 
tion ;  while  their  individual  consequence  at  the  same 
time  depends,  not  merely  upon  their  personal  charac- 
ter, but  upon  the  aggregation  of  power,  the  number 
of  men  and  ships,  which  the  extent  of  their  several 
dominions  places  respectively  at  their  disposal. 


PART    SECOND. 

FORMS   OF    GOVERNMENT    AND    POLITICAL 
REVOLUTIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
COMMENCEMENT  OF  ORGANIZED  GOVERNMENT. 

SECTION  FIRST. 

Communities  in  which  there  is  no   Organized  Gov- 
ernment. 

THERE  are  many  communities,  small  and  savage, 
—  an  aggregation  of  families  which  live  and  hunt  or 
fish  together,  —  in  which  government,  under  any 
organized  form,  can  be  hardly  said  to  exist.  The 
authority  of  each  man  over  his  family  is  well  estab- 
lished and  perfectly  definite ;  but  there  is  no  general 
authority.  Each  family  protects  its  own  persons  or 
property;  except  when  aggressions  come  from  some 
other  tribe  or  community,  when  all  unite  for  the 
common  defence.  The  women  are  held  in  a  con- 
dition of  servitude  ;  but  among  the  men  a  high 
degree  of  equality  prevails,  and,  if  this  community 
enjoy  the  advantage  of  a  genial  climate  and  abun- 
dance of  game,  a  considerable  degree  of  ease  and 
comfort  also  ;  such  a  degree,  in  fact,  of  equality, 

71 


72  THEORY    OF    POLITIC^. 

ease,  and  comfort,  especially  of  equality,  when,  com- 
pared with  the  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  in  highly-civilized  states,  as  has  deeply  im- 
pressed the  minds  of  many  speculative  inquirers, 
who  have  thus  been  led  to  doubt  whether,  after  all, 
civilization,  as  compared  with  this,  which  they  have 
denominated  the  state  of  nature,  is  really  favorable  to 
the  happiness  of  mankind. 

In  such  a  community,  when  any  matter  occurs 
interesting  to  the  whole,  such  as  the  proposal  of  a 
hunting  excursion,  a  migration,  or  a  military  ex- 
pedition, all  the  men  meet  together  to  talk  it  over. 
But  whatever  decision  is  come  to,  it  is  only  binding 
upon  those  who  assent  to  it.  The  dissentients  are 
not  bound.  There  is  no  general  authority  constrain- 
ing individuals,  whether  they  will  or  no. 

The  non-existence  of  an  organized  government  in 
such  communities  is  evidently  owing  to  the  high 
degree  of  equality  among  the  adult  male  members 
of  it,  which  prevents  any  individual,  or  number  of 
individuals,  from  attaining  a  decided  leadership  or 
control,  at  the  same  time  that  it  induces  a  general 
respect  for,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  an  indisposition 
to  violate,  the  rights  of  each  other  ;  because  such 
violation  would  certainly  be  resisted,  and  perhaps 
severely  revenged  ;  so  that  the  same  cause  which  pre- 
vents government  from  being  established  prevents  the 
want  of  it  from  being  felt.  In  such  communities, 
the  accumulation  of  wealth  is  almost  unknown. 
Property  exists  only  in  a  few  articles  of  daily  use, 
and  being  very  equally  shared,  all  those  temptations 
to  inflict  injuries  upon  others,  which  grow  out  of  the 
accumulation  of  wealth,  are  also  unknown;  and  in 


COMMENCEMENT    OF    ORGANIZED    GOVERNMENT.       73 

the  ratio  that  opportunities  for  injurious  exertions  of 
power  are  less  frequent,  in  the  same  ratio  is  there  the 
less  occasion  for  remedial  exertions  of  power. 

But  this  equilibrium,  in  which  the  forces  not 
only  counterbalance  but  nullify  each  other,  is,  ex- 
cept in  the  fancy  of  political  romancers,  never 
perfect.  The  old  men,  by  reason  of  their  superior 
knowledge,  the  fruit  of  experience,  —  sole  source  of 
knowledge  in  such  a  community,  —  exercise  a  certain 
controlling  influence  over  the  rest.  Those  who,  by 
nature's  endowment,  or  by  practice  and  exercise, 
possess  a  superior  degree  of  strength,  dexterity,  sa- 
gacity, activity,  perseverance,  fortitude,  self-control, 
and  disinterestedness,  attain  also  a  degree  of  in- 
fluence. Even  among  the  most  barbarous  tribes, 
eloquence  becomes  a  source  of  power,  the  orator 
enjoying  a  distinction  next  to  that  of  the  eminent 
huntsman  and  warrior. 

SECTION  SECOND. 

Causes  which  lead  to  the  Establishment  of  an  Organ- 
ized Government —  War. 

WHEN  a  community,  such  as  that  above  described, 
has  no  neighbors,  or  remains,  for  the  most  part,  at 
peace  with  them,  or  attains  no  new  ideas,  this  non- 
existence  of  an  organized  government  may  continue 
for  an  indefinite  period.  There  are,  however,  three 
causes,  which  may  come  into  operation  at  any  time ; 
each  potent  enough  —  by  bringing  into  play  one  of  the 
secondary  elements  of  power  —  in  itself  to  give  rise 
to  the  establishment  of  regular  authority ;  and  all 
7 


74  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

three  of  which  frequently  combine  to  the  same  end. 
These  causes  are,  first,  WAR,  to  which  a  degree  of 
combination  if  not  of  aggregation  is  essential ;  second, 
ACCUMULATION  OF  WEALTH  ;  third,  INFLUENCE  OF 
MYSTICAL  IDEAS. 

Every  war  expedition  consists  of  combined  strength. 
It  must  also  have  leaders  in  whom  power  is  aggregated, 
and,  to  be  conducted  with  success,  a  single  and  su- 
preme leader.  Before  organized  governments  are  fully 
established,  any  warrior  distinguished  by  his  strength, 
skill,  sagacity,  activity,  and  courage,  and  strongly 
impelled  by  the  love  of  authority  and  distinction, 
proposes  himself  as  a  leader,  and  sets  out  with  such 
followers  as  choose  to  accompany  him.  Such  seems 
to  have  been  the  state  of  things  among  the  German 
tribes  described  by  Tacitus,  and  such  is  still  the  case 
in  many  of  the  aboriginal  communities  of  America. 
Where  war  has  become  habitual,  as  seems  to  be  the 
case  with  most  of  the  African  tribes,  this  leadership 
acquires  a  more  regular  and  permanent  character,  and 
the  authority  of  the  head  war  chief  and  his  subor- 
dinates becomes  firmly  established  and  universally 
recognized.  If,  in  intervals  of  peace,  that  authority 
remains  quiescent,  it  is  because  peace,  in  a  tribe  in 
which  there  is  no  accumulation  of  wealth,  affords 
little  occasion  or  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  au- 
thority. 


COMMENCEMENT    OF    ORGANIZED    GOVERNMENT.       75 


SECTION  THIRD. 

.1 

Accumulation  of  Wealth. 

THERE  is  no  community,  however  rude  and  poor, 
in  which  the  idea  of  property  is  not  as  fully  estab- 
lished as  in  the  most  refined  society.  Every  where, 
even  the  most  completely  savage  expect  to  derive  a 
special  and  individual  advantage  from  the  bows  and 
arrows  they  have  made,  the  huts  they  have  built,  the 
canoes  they  have  laboriously  hollowed  out  or  in- 
geniously fabricated,  the  fruits  they  have  gathered, 
the  beasts  they  have  slain,  the  furs  they  have  dressed, 
and  the  roots  or  grain  they  have  planted.  It  is  this 
expectation  of  advantage  in  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  idea  of  property  consists  —  an  expectation  not 
arising  merely  from  convention,  as  many  have  al- 
leged, and  therefore  solely  created  by  law,  nor  founded 
merely  upon  strength  and  art  exerted  to  maintain  an 
actual  possession,  as  others  have  argued,  but  to  a  great 
degree,  based,  also,  on  the  ordinary  force  of  the  moral 
sentiment  restraining  men  from  the  unprovoked  in- 
fliction upon  others  of  the  pain  of  disappointed  ex- 
pectation. 

So  long,  in  fact,  as  property  is  limited  to  the  objects 
above  enumerated,  the  temptations  to  plunder  are,  in 
general,  so  slight,  that,  as  between  members  of  the 
same  tribe,  they  are  sufficiently  repressed  by  this  sen- 
timent of  benevolence,  or,  where  that  fails,  by  the  fear 
of  that  resistance  to  robbery  which  every  man  is  able 
to  make  for  himself.  The  relations  of  property,  in 
such  a  state  of  society,  are,  in  general,  far  from 


76  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

complicated.  For  the  most  part,  things  are  in  the 
actual  possession  of  those  to  whom  they  belong ;  and 
the  V  ^ht  of  the  possessor  is  generally  so  clear  as  to 
give  few  occasions  for  dispute.  Thus,  during  peace, 
there  is  little  preceilce  or  opportunity  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  authority,  which  circumstance  sufficiently 
explains  why  it  is  that,  in  such  communities,  the 
existence  of  regular  authority  becomes  evident  only 
dujing  war. 

/But  when  such  a  community  advances  from  the 
hunter  to  the  pastoral  or  agricultural  state,  the  neces- 
sity is  felt  of  a  distribution  or  allotment  of  land,  per- 
manent or  periodical ;  and,  simultaneously,  the  need 
of  some  authority  to  maintain  that  allotment,  and  of 
some  arbiter  to  settle  disputes.  The  accumulation  of 
wealth,  in  consequence  of  these  new  exercises  of  in- 
dustry, tempts,  also,  more  and  more  to  violations  of 
the  rights  of  property,  not  only  by  offering  new  and 
seducing  objects  of  plunder,  but  by  now  first  giving 
origin  to  the  desire  to  accumulate.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, the  necessity  for  some  civil  authority 
becomes  obvious ;  and  no  sooner  does  the  opportunity 
of  exercising  such  authority  present  itself,  than  it  is 
immediately  availed  of  by  the  chiefs,  who,  from  being 
leaders  in  war,  become  now  also  judges  and  magis- 
trates in  peace.  The  final  settlement  of  controversies, 
no  less  than  the  leadership  of  warlike  enterprises, 
demands  a  sovereign  authority ;  and  as  the  bravest, 
most  sagacious,  and  enterprising  of  the  warriors  be- 
comes the  war  leader,  so  one  and  generally  the  same 
chief  rises  to  the  head  of  civil  affairs./ 

For  some  time,  this  chieftaincy  remains  open  to  be 
assumed  by  him  whose  ambition  prompts  him  to  take 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  ORGANIZED  GOVERNMENT.   77 

it,  and  whose  ability  enables  him  to  keep  it.  But 
gradually  traditional  respect  and  the  idea  of  property 
in  power  supervene,  and  fix  in  a  single  family  the 
headship  of  the  tribe,  which  begins  to  descend  from 
father  to  son;  or  when,  as  is  frequently  the  case  among 
savage  tribes,  the  descent  is  through  the  female  line, 
from  the  uncle  to  the  nephew;  liable,  however,  to 
constant  interruptions  whenever  the  heir  is  an  infant 
or  an  imbecile. 

Such  is  the  simplest  form  of  monarchy ;  and,  gen- 
erally speaking,  until  this  form  be  reached,  an  organ- 
ized government  can  hardly  be  said  to  exist.  Such 
was  the  form  which  prevailed  among  the  Greeks 
previous  to  the  introduction  of  republicanism,  in  the 
times  when  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  were  composed, 
and  more  recently  among  the  Scotch  and  Irish  clans. 
Under  this  form,  the  whole  authority — judicial,  under 
which  the  legislative  is  also  included,  and  executive — 
is  vested  in  a  single  chief,  at  once  judge,  legislator, 
and  himself  often  executioner  also.  But  his  power  is 
very  far  from  despotic ;  the  inequality  in  such  com- 
munities between  the  chief  and  the  clansmen  does  not 
yet  reach  a  very  high  degree ;  and  his  authority  can 
only  be  maintained  by  a  general  conformity,  in  the 
exercise  of  it,  to  the  ideas  of  the  governed.  Should 
the  chief  attempt  to  act  in  decided  opposition  to  those 
ideas,  he  would  soon  find  himself  deposed  from  his 
office,  which  would,  in  general,  be  conferred  upon  some 
other  member  of  the  ruling  family.  Not  unfrequently, 
however,  in  such  cases,  the  chieftaincy  is  transferred 
to  some  new  family ;  or,  if  matters  are  ripe  for  it,  the 
form  of  government  is  changed,  and  monarchy  ceases. 
The  consciousness  of  his  own  weakness  operates,  in 
7* 


78  THEORY    OP    POLITICS. 

such  governments,  to  keep  the  chief  within  certain 
bounds ;  and  the  consciousness  of  their  own  power 
still  preserves  to  the  clansmen  a  bold  and  manly 
bearing. 

SECTION  FOURTH. 
Influence  of  Mystical  Ideas. 

WE  may,  however,  frequently  observe,  among  com- 
munities no  further  advanced  in  civilization  than  the 
Grecian,  Scottish,  and  Irish  clans  above  referred  to, 
(as,  for  instance,  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  Sand- 
wich Islands  and  other  islands  of  the  Pacific,  as  they 
appeared  to  the  discoverers  a  century  or  less  ago,  and 
among  some  of  the  savage  American  tribes,)  the  ex- 
istence of  a  government  perfectly  despotic,  of  which 
the  origin  is  to  be  sought  and  found  in  the  influence 
of  mystical  ideas.  These  ideas,  under  one  form  or 
another,  exist  among  all  savage  tribes ;  nor  are  there 
often  wanting  individuals,  at  once  visionary  and  fond 
of  superiority,  in  whom  the  twin  spirits  of  credulity 
and  imposture  are  mingled  in  such  degrees  as  to  fit 
them  for  claiming  a  special  knowledge  of  spiritual 
matters,  and  even  an  intercourse  and  an  influence 
with  supernatural  beings.  In  all  savage  and  barba- 
rous tribes,  persons  of  this  description,  known  among 
the  North  American  Indians  as  "powwows"  or  "med- 
icine men,"  and  among  the  Africans  as  "  obeah  men," 
exert  an  influence  greater  or  less,  and  contend  for 
power  with  the  chiefs,  whose  authority  is  founded 
upon  the  forensic  basis  above  pointed  out ;  and  occa- 
sionally it  happens  that  some  one  of  them 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  ORGANIZED  GOVERNMENT.   79 

in  establishing  so  firmly  the  belief  in  his  supernatural 
power  as  to  be  able  to  subject  his  whole  tribe  to 
implicit  submission  —  of  which  a  remarkable,  and,  in 
the  United  States,  familiar,  instance  occurred  less 
than  half  a  century  ago,  in  the  ascendency  established 
over  the  Indian  tribes  north-west  of  the  Ohio  by  the 
celebrated  Shawanese  prophet. 

It  is  in  this  influence  of  mystical  ideas  that  we 
must  seek  for  the  origin  of  the  Mexican  and  Peruvian 
empires  in  America,  presenting,  in  the  abject  servitude 
of  the  mass  of  the  people,  so  marked  a  contrast  to 
the  free  spirit  and  general  equality  prevailing  among 
the  greater  part  of  the  American  aborigines.  The 
theocratic  governments  of  the  old  world  —  those  of 
Egypt,  Gaul,  India,  and  Central  Asia  —  no  doubt 
arose  from  similar  beginnings.  We  have  authentic 
historical  proof  that  such  was  the  origin  of  the  splen- 
did empire  of  the  caliphs,  and  of  the  theocratic  states 
of  Christendom,  the  Popedom  included. 

Despotic  authority,  thus  established  upon  a  mysti- 
cal basis,  proves  very  effectual  in  subduing  the  vio- 
lence and  indolence  of  barbarous  and  savage  tribes, 
and  for  introducing  among  them  a  regular  and  settled 
industry.  This  was  strikingly  exhibited  in  the  Jesuit 
settlements  in  Paraguay,  and  in  the  missions  among 
the  wild  Indians  (Indios  bravos)  of  Central  America, 
and  of  the  north-western  provinces  of  Mexico ;  and 
the  same  effect  has  been  produced,  though  much  less 
strikingly,  by  the  Protestant,  especially  the  Moravian, 
missions  among  the  American  aborigines. 

This  influence  of  mystical  ideas,  as  there  will  be 
occasion  hereafter  to  show  more  at  length,  exists 


80  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

with  very  different  degrees  of  intensity  in  different 
communities.  It  is  frequently  intermingled,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  with  the  other  elements  of  power,  the 
chieftains  being  priests  by  virtue  of  their  office,  and 
often  claiming  a  descent  from  the  gods.  Govern- 
ments founded,  in  whole  or  in  part,  upon  this  influ- 
ence, like  those  founded  upon  a  purely  forensic  basis, 
always  assume,  in  the  first  instance,  a  monarchical 
form.  In  proportion  as  the  mystical  element  becomes 
more  predominating,  they  take  on  a  more  despotic 
character ;  the  obedience  of  the  subjects  becoming,  at 
the  same  time,  the  more  unhesitating  and  entire. 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    ORIGINAL    MONARCHY.        81 


CHAPTER  II. 

DEVELOPMENT  AND   GROWTH  OF  THE  ORIGINAL 
MONARCHY. 


SECTION  FIRST. 
Limited  Extent  of  the  Embryo  Monarchy. 

THE  original  monarchy,  whether  mystical  or  forensic, 
is,  in  its  embryo  state,  very  limited  in  extent,  a  mere 
chieftaincy,  embracing  only  one  of  those  small  tribes 
or  clans  into  which  we  always  find  men  in  the  hunter 
state  divided,  that  method  of  life  not  allowing  the  liv- 
ing together  in  considerable  numbers.  Nor,  so  long  as 
men  remain  in  the  hunter  state,  does  this  embryo 
monarchy  admit  of  any  enlargement,  beyond  a  recog- 
nition of  his  superior  authority,  which  some  chieftain 
more  energetic  than  his  neighbors  may  obtain  from 
a  number  of  neighboring  clans,  which  are  thus  united 
into  a  confederacy,  of  which  he  is  acknowledged  as 
the  head.  Such  was  the  state  of  things  among  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants  of  America,  (those  of  the  great 
tropical  plateaus  excepted,)  whose  largest  tribes  hardly 
embraced  more  than  three  or  four  thousand  persons  ; 
and  whose  most  potent  confederacies,  though  often 
occupying  territories  not  inferior  in  extent  to  the 
British  Islands,  could  not  count  more  than  twenty 
or  thirty  thousand. 


82  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 


SECTION  SECOND. 

Passage  from  the  Hunter  to  the  Shepherd  State.     Com- 
mencement of  the  accumulation  of  Wealth. 

ON  those  broad  steppes,  savannas,  prairies,  which 
compose  so  considerable  a  portion  of  the  surface  of 
the  globe,  and  which  are  so  well  adapted  to  the  sup- 
port of  graminivorous  animals,  —  the  diminished  sup- 
ply of  wild  game  no  longer  affording  sufficient  food, 
—  men  have  been  driven ;  or,  finding  that  method 
more  convenient  and  certain,  have  been  thence  led 
to  adopt  the  breeding  of  certain  animals  found  ca- 
pable of  domestication.  Changed  thus  from  hunters 
to  shepherds,  these  tribes  become  masters  of  large 
herds  of  cattle,  sheep,  goats,  horses,  asses,  camels, 
some  or  all  of  them,  according  to  the  nature  and 
climate  of  the  country  which  they  inhabit.  These 
animals,  thus  domesticated  and  appropriated,  con- 
stitute wealth,  a  thing  unknown  in  the  savage  state ; 
and  the  introduction  of  this  new  element  does  not  fail 
to  be  attended  with  important  results,  as  well  social 
as  political. 

SECTION  THIRD. 

First  Effect  of  this  Change  —  Increase  of  Paternal 
Authority. 

THE  hunter,  as  we  have  already  seen,  has  no  means 
of  influence  over  his  children,  or  over  any  body  else, 
beyond  those  which  he  derives  from  his  superiority 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    ORIGINAL    MONARCHY.        83 

in  the  intrinsic  elements  of  power;  and  in  such  a 
state  of  things,  the  father's  control  over  his  male 
children  naturally  ceases  when  they  attain  to  matu- 
rity. Bat  the  accumulation  of  wealth  introduces  a 
new  element  The  shepherd  father  possesses  in  his 
flocks  and  herds,  and  in  his  power  of  regulating  the 
distribution  of  them  among  his  children,  either  during 
his  life  or  at  his  death,  a  new  means  of  controlling  their 
actions,  and  of  keeping  them  obedient  to  his  wishes. 
The  shepherd  father  also  has  the  means — which  the 
hunter  father  has  not  —  of  employing  the  services  of 
his  children,  even  during  their  early  youth,  in  a 
manner  profitable  to  himself,  since  these  children 
can  be  made  useful  as  herdsmen  and  shepherds. 
Among  hunter  tribes,  the  authority  of  the  father  over 
his  male  children  is  very  limited ;  nor  does  he  often, 
as  has  already  been  observed,  attempt  to  employ  their 
services  for  his  own  benefit.  In  shepherd  tribes,  the 
children  are  subjected  to  a  severer  discipline.  The 
character  of  master  begins  to  intermingle  itself 
with  that  of  father.  The  father's  power  of  life  and 
death  over  his  children,  which  is  limited  in  hunter 
tribes  to  the  very  young,  is  thus  often  protracted  among 
pastoral  nations  to  the  whole  period  of  the  father's 
life.  It  is  too  in  this  condition  of  society  —  as  among 
the  Arabian  and  Celtic  clans  —  that  genealogical 
considerations  naturally  acquire  a  new  degree  of 
force.  Thus  the  chieftain  often  claims  to  represent 
—  as  perhaps  in  fact  he  sometimes  does  —  the  original 
remote  ancestor  of  the  whole  community. 


84  THEORY    OP    POLITICS. 


SECTION  FOURTH. 

Second  Effect — Introduction  of  Domestic  or  Chattel 
Slavery. 

WITH  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  and  the  desire 
to  extend  that  accumulation,  labor  begins  to  acquire 
an  exchangeable  value.  The  prisoners  taken  in  war, 
especially  the  women  and  children,  more  manageable 
than  the  men,  instead  of  being  murdered,  and  per- 
haps eaten,  or  else  adopted  to  supply  the  place  of 
lost  relatives,  or  to  replenish  the  scanty  population  of 
the  victor  tribe,  begin  now  to  be  made  slaves  of,  and 
to  have  a  certain  value  as  such.  Hence  a  new 
stimulus  to  warlike  enterprises.  The  hope  of  plunder 
added  to  the  impulses  which  drive  hunters  to  fight, 
shepherd  tribes  become  far  more  pugnacious  than 
they. 

Domestic  slavery,  in  this  its  original  form,  is 
comparatively  mild.  Those  slaves,  especially,  born  in 
their  master's  house,  stand  almost  on  a  level  with  his 
children,  which  indeed  they  often  are* — the  female 
slaves  serving  as  concubines  to  the  master  ;  nor  in 
general,  in  this  primitive  condition  of  society,  is  there 
any  hesitancy  in  acknowledging  this  relationship. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  ORIGINAL  MONARCHY.     85 

SECTION  FIFTH. 
ect  —  Introduction  of  Organized  Government. 


THIS  accumulation  of  wealth  in  herds  and  slaves, 
while  it  tends  to  increase  the  power  of  the  father  of 
the  family,  tends  also  to  increase  the  power  of  the 
chieftain  of  the  tribe.  It  has  already  been  shown 
how  the  accumulation  of  wealth  creates  occasion 
and  gives  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  authority, 
as  well  during  peace  as  during  war  ;  and  how  he  who 
was  at  first  leader  only  in  war  becomes  also  during 
peace  judge  and  arbiter  for  the  settlement  of  disputes, 
and  executioner  for  the  punishment  of  wrong  doers  ; 
a  permanent  and  regularly-organized  government  thus 
taking  its  first  establishment. 

Though  the  pastoral  state  has,  in  several  respects, 
great  advantages  over  the  hunter  state,  admitting  a 
great  increase  in  the  number  and  concentration  of  the 
community,  yet  it  falls,  in  these  respects,  far  below  the 
agricultural  state  ;  nor  do  purely  pastoral  tribes  ever 
pass  the  limit  of  barbarism.  Whenever  the  rulers  of 
pastoral  empires  have  attained  to  a  certain  external 
splendor  and  luxury,  this  will  always  be  found  to  have 
been  due  to  their  conquests  over  agricultural  tribes. 
8 


86  THEORY  OF  POLITICS. 

SECTION  SIXTH. 
Extension  given  by  Agriculture  to  Chattel  Slavery. 

THE  life  of  the  shepherd  is  very  analogous,  in  many 
respects,  to  that  of  the  hunter  ;  nor  does  the  transition 
from  the  hunter  to  the  shepherd  state  seem  very 
difficult.  But  to  convert  either  a  hunter  or  a  shepherd 
into  an  agriculturist  is  a  more  difficult  matter;  for 
agriculture  requires  a  diligent  and  continuous  appli- 
cation, of  which  men  are  incapable  unless  they  be 
trained  to  it  from  early  youth,  or  be  goaded  to  it  by 
some  impulse  of  peculiar  force. 

We  may  observe  that  the  labors  of  agriculture,  in  its 
earliest  rudimentary  form,  as  it  appears  among  savage 
nations,  are  confined  to  the  women,  who  are  in  fact 
slaves.  When  any  of  the  shepherd  tribes  —  by  a 
change  in  their  location  or  other  causes  —  have  found 
it  expedient  to  add  agriculture  to  the  keeping  of 
flocks,  this  agricultural  labor  has  been  principally 
carried  on  by  slaves,  who,  with  this  change  of  oc- 
cupation, begin  to  feel  all  the  severities  of  servitude. 

From  the  first  dawn  of  history,  till  within  a  com- 
paratively recent  period,  the  soil  of  Europe  has 
been  cultivated  —  when  cultivated  at  all  —  almost 
entirely  by  slaves  or  serfs ;  and  in  consequence,  oper- 
ative agriculture  always  has  been,  and  in  fact  still  is, 
considered  an  occupation  not  less  degrading  than 
laborious.  The  alleged  honor  paid  to  agriculture 
among  the  Romans  may  be  cited  in  opposition  to 
this  statement ;  but  that  honor  —  if  it  was  ever  paid 
to  operative  agriculture,  which  is  sufficiently  doubtful 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    ORIGINAL    MONARCHY.        87 

—  was  paid  to  it  only  while  the  Romans  still  con- 
tinued very  poor.  So  soon  as  they  possessed  them- 
selves of  slaves,  agriculture  became  a  servile  employ- 
ment ;  and  in  the  days  of  Roman  power  and  splendor, 
the  whole,  even  of  Italy  itself,  was  tilled  by  servile 
hands.  Agriculture  among  the  Romans,  as  now 
among  the  English,  was  esteemed  honorable,  not  to 
those  who  held  the  plough,  but  to  the  owners  of  the 
land,  who  at  the  utmost  only  superintended  the 
labors  of  others.  The  epithet  ploughman,  respectable 
as  it  ought  to  be,  is,  by  the  usage  of  the  English 
language,  a  contemptuous  synonyme  for  a  stupid  and 
illiterate  booby. 

SECTION  SEVENTH. 

Influence  of  Mystical  Ideas  a  Substitute  for  Chattel 
Slavery.     Mystical  Form  of  Social  Slavery. 

WHERE  the  transition  has  taken  place  directly  from 
the  hunter  to  the  agricultural  state,  the  influence  of 
mystical  ideas  seems  to  have  been  employed  to 
supply  the  place  of  chattel  slavery.  The  shepherd 
state  does  not  appear  to  have  been  known  in  abo- 
riginal America.  The  Mexicans  had  no  domestic 
animals,  the  Peruvians  only  the  lama.  These  na- 
tions appear  to  have  passed  directly  from  the  hunt- 
er to  the  agricultural  state  —  a  change,  however, 
not  effected,  except  by  first  totally  subduing  the 
minds  of  the  mass  by  the  force  of  mystical  terrors ; 
thus  rendering  them  passive  instruments  in  the  hands 
of  their  governors,  in  fact  the  slaves,  if  not  of  individ- 
ual owners,  at  least  of  the  governing  power.  The 


88  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

history  of  the  Jesuits  in  Paraguay,  and  of  those 
other  American  missions  already  referred  to,  will  help 
us  to  conjecture  by  what  means  the  earlier  aboriginal 
empires  of  Mexico  and  Peru  were  established. 

The  system  of  social  slavery,  thus  in  its  earlier 
form  based  on  the  influence  of  mystical  ideas,  and  in 
that  shape  of  very  great  antiquity,  we  shall  presently 
find  reappearing  at  a  much  more  advanced  period  of 
human  progress,  under  very  different  circumstances, 
being  established  and  sustained  by  very  different 
means,  and  destitute  of  many  of  the  alleviations  with 
which  the  earlier  form  of  it  is  attended. 


SECTION  EIGHTH. 
The  Chieftain  becomes  a  King-. 

IN  making  necessary  the  establishment  of  property 
in  land,  agriculture  gives  occasion  for  new  exercises 
of  civil  authority ;  at  the  same  time,  by  increasing 
the  means  of  subsistence,  it  increases  the  numbers  of 
the  community ;  and  the  power  of  the  chieftain  thus 
increasing  in  extent  and  intensity,  he  becomes  that 
which  is  described  by  the  word  KING. 

Thus,  at  length,  a  state  of  things  is  reached  in 
which  the  original  monarchy,  having  started  an  ob- 
scure and  indistinct  embryo,  takes  on  its  complete 
development.  Thus  it  is  that  kingdoms  take  their 
origin,  built  sometimes  on  a  forensic,  sometimes  on 
a  mystical  foundation,  more  frequently,  perhaps,  on 
both  united.  In  proportion,  however,  as  the  kingly 
power  rests  upon  a  mystical  foundation,  its  intensity 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    ORIGINAL    MONARCHY.        89 

is  greater ;  and  where  mysticism  is  its  principal  ele- 
ment, it  assumes,  even  in  the  smallest  communities, 
a  character  of  complete  despotism. 


SECTION  NINTH. 
Extension  of  the  Original  Kingdom  by  Conquest. 

AFTER  wealth  begins  to  be  accumulated  in  the 
shape  of  flocks,  herds,  and  slaves,  war  assumes  a 
new  character.  Generally  speaking,  savages  engage 
in  war  merely  to  gratify  their  sympathies  and  their 
malevolence,  and  for  the  sake  of  certain  pleasures  of 
activity  and  superiority.  But  after  wealth  begins  to 
be  accumulated,  however  the  gratification  afforded 
by  war  to  the  sentiments  of  self-comparison,  of  ma- 
levolence, and  of  admiration  may  prevent  its  main 
object  and  intent  from  being  discerned,  it  becomes, 
on  the  part  of  the  aggressive  party,  very  little  dif- 
ferent in  its  character  from  highway  robbery,  except 
in  the  magnitude  of  its  scale  of  plunder.  Partly 
owing  to  the  vast  expenses  involved  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  war  according  to  modern  methods ;  partly 
owing  to  the  advances  made  in  the  science  of  wealth, 
or  what  is  called  political  economy  ;  partly  by  reason 
of  the  limitation  introduced  among  civilized  nations, 
and  partially  adhered  to,  that  private  property  is  to 
be  respected,  —  it  has  come,  within  a  very  recent  pe- 
riod, to  be  perceived  that  plunder  and  conquest  are 
neither  the  surest  nor  the  shortest  road  to  opulence, 
nor  even  to  power,  of  which  opulence  has  become; 
so  important  an  element.  Hence,  in  part  at  least, 
8* 


90  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

the  marked  indisposition  of  the  more  civilized  and 
powerful  nations,  during  the  last  third  of  a  century, 
to  make  war  on  each  other ;  the  appeal  to  arms 
being  mostly  reserved  for  the  case  of  semi-barbarous 
and  comparatively  helpless  neighbors  —  Caucasians, 
Algerines,  Arabs,  Caffres,  Burmese,  Chinese,  Seiks, 
Mexicans ;  while  even  as  to  them,  the  war  policy 
comes,  day  by  day,  to  be  regarded  as  more  and  more 
questionable. 

In  ruder  times,  and  especially  among  shepherd 
tribes,  the  seizure  of  the  property  and  persons  of  their 
neighbors  presented  itself  as  the  shortest,  surest,  and 
least  troublesome  means  of  accumulating  wealth  — 
a  view  which  the  result  of  a  successful  war  would 
tend  greatly  to  confirm  ;  the  flocks  of  the  neighboring 
tribes  being  thus  added  to  those  of  the  victors,  their 
pastures  extended,  and  their  slaves  multiplied. 

As  long  as  conquest,  in  such  cases,  is  confined  to 
neighboring  tribes  of  similar  manners,  language,  and 
religion,  the  conquered  are  absorbed  into  the  body  of 
the  conquerors,  and  the  community  still  preserves  its 
original  homogeneous  character.  Even  though  the 
individuals  of  the  conquered  tribes  be  reduced  to 
slavery,  that  slavery,  owing  to  the  actual  equality 
upon  most  points,  so  long  as  the  shepherd  state  con- 
tinues, of  the  masters  and  the  slaves,  is  comparatively 
mild,  and  such  slaves  easily  regain  the  position  of 
freemen.  It  generally  happens,  however,  that  the 
beaten  tribes,  by  submitting  in  time,  are  able,  by  the 
sacrifice  of  a  part  of  their  wealth,  to  secure  their 
adoption  into  the  victor  tribe  upon  terms  of  equality, 
or  something  approaching  to  it. 

By  this  continual  aggregation  of  numbers,  the  con- 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    ORIGINAL    MONARCHY.        91 

quering  tribe  grows  more  powerful  and  more  able  to 
extend  its  conquests,  and  often,  in  a  very  short  time, 
a  great  number  of  tribes  originally  independent  be- 
come united  under  one  regal  head  —  of  which  we 
have  striking  instances  in  the  sudden  rise  and  rapid 
progress  of  many  Turkish,  Tartar,  and  Mongol  em- 
pires. 

The  king  of  the  conquering  tribe  or  confederacy 
himself  comes  in  for  a  great  share  of  the  spoils  thus 
acquired  ;  as  the  leader  in  these  enterprises,  he  is  con- 
stantly giving  new  proofs  of  sagacity,  courage,  and 
activity ;  and  hence  the  admiration  with  which  he 
is  regarded  constantly  increases,  and  his  power  along 
with  it. 

SECTION  TENTH. 

Contact  of  Shepherd  Kingdoms  with  Agricultural 
Stales. 

PRESENTLY  this  growing  kingdom,  which  we  may 
suppose  to  consist,  as  yet,  merely  of  migratory  shep- 
herds, begins  to  come  into  contact  with  agricultural 
communities  —  either  such  as  are  forensically  gov- 
erned, carrying  on  cultivation  by  means  of  slaves,  or 
theocracies  in  which,  by  the  force  of  mystical  ideas, 
the  rrtass  of  the  people  have  been  subdued  into  perfect 
submission,  and  substantially  converted  into  the  slaves 
of  the  theocratic  order ;  or  possibly  the  social  condi- 
tion of  these  states  may  embrace  both  of  these  ele- 
ments. 

These  agricultural  communities,  by  reason  of  their 
greater  amount  of  accumulated  wealth,  including 


THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 


many  articles,  such  as  wine,  oil,  corn,  and  other  luxu- 
ries hardly  known  before  to  the  barbarian  shepherds, 
hold  out  powerful  temptations  to  the  invaders,  whom, 
at  the  same  time,  they  are  often  ill  able  to  resist. 

In  agricultural  states  forensically  governed,  the  free- 
men who  keep  their  slaves  in  subjection  mainly  by 
superior  force  will,  it  is  likely,  be  warriors,  whom 
superior  weapons,  and  often  their  better  acquaintance 
with  the  science  of  war,  will  enable  to  make  a  stout 
resistance  to  their  barbarous  invaders.  But  there  will 
be  two  great  disadvantages  under  which  they  will 
labor.  They  have  an  internal  enemy  in  the  servile 
population  ;  and,  from  the  very  fact  that  the  cultivators 
are  slaves,  the  military  force  of  the  state  will  bear  but 
a  small  proportion  to  the  whole  number.  Yet  it  gen- 
erally happens,  unless  the  increase  of  wealth  has  ren- 
dered those  in  authority  luxurious  and  unwarlike,  that 
forensic  agricultural  states,  though  they  may  yield  to 
the  first  onset  of  the  invaders,  finally  succeed  in  re- 
pulsing the  shepherd  hordes  by  which  they  may  be 
attacked  ;  or,  if  they  yield  at  last,  they  yield  only  to  a 
long  succession  of  inroads. 

The  fate  of  theocratic  agricultural  states  is  gen- 
erally different.  In  theocracies,  the  supremacy  of  the 
rulers  is  chiefly  sustained,  not  by  the  possession  of 
arms  and  skill  in  the  use  of  them,  but  by  the  influence 
of  mystical  ideas.  In  theocratic  states,  at  least  those 
of  long  standing,  military  exercises  are  generally  dis- 
used, and  military  science  little  cultivated  ;  so  that 
these  states  often  fall  an  easy  prey  to  barbarian  in- 
vaders, against  whom  the  spiritual  terrors  of  the  the- 
ocracy are,  at  first,  of  no  avail. 

But  even  in  these  cases,  the  theocracy  generally 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    ORIGINAL    MONARCHY.        93 

contrives,  in  the  end,  to  regain  its  ascendency,  and  to 
convert  its  late  conquerors  into  its  instruments,  or,  at 
most,  but  its  partners  in  power.  The  superstitious 
spirit  of  ignorant  barbarians  is  very  easily  operated 
upon  by  a  priesthood  comparatively  enlightened  and 
learned,  skilled  in  all  the  arts  of  mystical  influence, 
and  doubly  stimulated,  not  only  by  the  hope  of  re- 
gaining the  position  they  have  temporarily  lost,  but 
also  by  the  desire  of  making  new  converts.  So  it 
happened  to  the  barbarians  who  subdued  the  Roman 
empire,  but  who  were  themselves  subdued  by  the 
Roman  priesthood,  as  well  as  to  the  Turkish  and 
Tartar  hordes  which  successively  seized  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  caliphate. 

Upon  the  mass  of  the  population  —  the  subject, 
servile  class,  the  cultivators  of  the  soil  —  these  revolu- 
tions, whether  the  original  conquest  or  the  reestab- 
lishment  of  the  theocracy,  have  comparatively  little 
effect.  Subject  and  servile  they  still  remain  through 
the  whole  process,  experiencing  only  a  change  of  mas- 
ters. And  yet,  though  it  may  not  degrade  their  con- 
dition, (that  condition  being  already  as  low  as  it 
can  be  short  of  chattel  slavery,)  still  the  conquest 
of  a  theocratic  state  by  a  shepherd  tribe  is  often  very 
disagreeable  to  the  mass  of  the  people  as  well  as  to 
the  priests.  The  rule  of  the  new  conquerors  inflicts 
pains  of  inferiority,  which,  instead  of  being  neutral- 
ized by  pleasures  of  admiration,  are  aggravated  by 
pains  of  malevolence  and  of  fear.  The  soothing  in- 
fluence is  no  longer  felt  of  those  mystical  ideas  under 
which  their  theocratic  masters  had  been  submitted  to 
as  men  submit  without  struggle,  and  almost  without 
complaint,  to  the  operation  of  known  and  familiar 


94  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

laws  of  nature.  Moreover,  the  new  masters,  being 
less  cultivated,  and,  by  consequence,  less  humane, 
than  the  old  ones,  arid  being  rilled  with  contempt  for 
the  unwarlike  spirit  and  servile  condition  of  their  new 
subjects,  generally  exercise  their  power  with  a  harsh- 
ness and  violence  unknown  during  the  times  of  the 
theocracy. 

Besides  those  invasions  of  shepherd  tribes  from  the 
steppes  of  Tartary,  by  which,  within  the  period  of 
authentic  history,  almost  the  whole  of  the  old  con- 
tinent, except  that  portion  of  Africa  south  of  the 
Desert  of  Sahara,  has  been  overrun,  there  are  suf- 
ficient indications  that  in  much  earlier  times,  prior 
to  the  commencement  of  authentic  history,  similar 
invasions  and  conquests  had  already  taken  place. 
It  seems  to  be  clearly  established  by  similarities 
of  language,  —  both  as  relates  to  individual  words 
and  to  grammatical  construction,  —  that  the  Celts  of 
Gaul,  Spain,  and  Britain,  a  portion  of  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  Central  and  Southern  Italy,  the 
Greeks,  the  Germans,  the  Goths,  the  Sclavonic  tribes, 
the  Persians  and  the  Hindoos,  were  offshoots  from 
the  same  parent  stock,  whose  original  seat  can  only 
be  looked  for  on  the  table  land  of  Central  Asia. 
Indeed,  the  possession,  by  all  these  nations,  of  horses, 
flocks,  and  herds,  —  animals  of  which  the  primitive 
wild  types  no  longer  exist.  —  and  more  especially  the 
use  of  war  chariots,  tends  strongly  to  show  that  their 
ancestors  must  have  come  from  a  country  of  grassy 
plains,  in  which  only  such  animals  would  be  looked 
for  as  indigenous,  and  where  alone  such  instruments 
as  war  chariots  were  likely  to  be  invented,  to  the  use 
of  which  the  rough  mountains  of  Greece,  and  the 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    ORIGINAL    MONARCHY.        95 

woods  of  Gaul  and  Britain,  were  but  very  ift 
adapted. 

The  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the  countries  seized 
upon  by  these  shepherd  invaders  suffered,  no  doubt> 
the  same  fate  which  the  Saxons  afterwards  inflicted 
on  the  Britons  ;  a  part  were  exterminated,  a  part  were 
adopted  into  the  conquering  tribes,  and  a  part  re- 
mained, or  were  made,  slaves.  Not  improbably  the 
Druidical  religion  may  have  been  the  religion  of  the 
ancient  inhabitants  of  Gaul  and  Britain,  imposed 
upon  the  conquering  Celts,  by  the  arts  of  the  priests, 
in  the  same  way  that  the  Goths  and  Franks  were, 
in  subsequent  ages,  converted  to  Christianity.  To 
what  degree  of  civilization  some  of  these  nations—- 
and  perhaps  the  ancient  Etrurians  were  one  of  them 
—  may  have  attained,  previous  to  their  conquest 
by  the  shepherd  tribes,  the  analogy  of  Babylonia, 
Egypt,  China,  Mexico,  and  Peru  may  enable  us  to 
conjecture. 

When  agricultural  and  civilized  states  fall  into  the 
possession  of  shepherd  conquerors,  it  frequently  hap- 
pens, amid  the  quarrels  of  contending  dynasties,  and 
the  disorder  and  insecurity  which  these  barbarian 
conquerors  bring  with  them,  that  wealth,  civilization, 
and  population  gradually  decline ;  that  agriculture, 
except  to  a  limited  extent,  is  abandoned ;  and  that, 
as  the  fields  —  no  longer  cultivated  —  reassume  their 
original  wildness  and  woodiness,  pasturage  becomes 
the  chief  resource  of  the  people,  and  the  woods  and 
mountains  are  again  filled  with  wild  game. 

This  is  what  happened  to  the  western  provinces 
of  the  Roman  empire,  in  consequence  of  repeated 
invasions  and  conquests  by  shepherd  tribes  from 


96  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

Germany  and  Sarmatia ;  and  at  a  later  period  to  its 
eastern  provinces,  in  consequence  of  repeated  Turkish 
invasions  and  conquests  —  a  consideration  which  will 
add  to  the  probability  that  nations  comparatively 
civilized  might,  before  the  period  of  the  Celtic  in- 
vasion, have  existed  in  Western  Europe. 

Though  empires  formed  by  the  conquests  of  shep- 
ard  tribes,  like  that,  for  instance,  of  Attila,  have  often 
reached  a  vast  extent  in  a  very  short  period,  these 
empires,  for  the  most  part,  except  where  they  have 
become  ingrafted  on  some  preexisting  theocracy, 
have  been  very  short-lived.  In  the  times  of  the  sons 
or  the  grandsons  of  the  original  founder,  they  have 
generally  split  into  fragments ;  which  again  have  been 
united  by  some  new  conqueror,  and  again  dissevered  ; 
and  so  on  in  rapid  succession. 


OLIGARCHIES,    ARISTOCRACIES,    ETC.  97 


CHAPTER  III. 

OLIGARCHIES,  ARISTOCRACIES,    TYRANNIES,    SECOND- 
ARY MONARCHY. 

SECTION  FIRST. 

Circumstances  under  which  a  Higher  Political  Develop- 
ment becomes  possible. 

THE  preceding  chapter  embraces  the  complete  cycle, 
from  the  earliest  to  the  present  times,  of  the  political 
history  of  the  shepherd  tribes  Inhabiting  the  broad 
plains  of  Central  Asia,  and  of  those  agricultural 
nations,  such  as,  in  very  early  ages,  were  planted  on 
the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  the  Tigris,  the  Nile, 
the  Indus,  the  Ganges,  and  the  great  rivers  of 
China,  exposed,  with  no  natural  barriers  of  defence, 
to  the  aggressive  irruptions  *of  these  pastoral  com- 
munities. » 

But  when,  in  the  course  of  its  wanderings,  one  of 
these  pastoral  tribes  becomes  possessed  of  a 'mountain- 
ous and  defensible  country,  where,  by  the  advantage 
of  local  position,  a  small  tribe  is  able  to  maintain 
itself  against  great  numbers,  and  where  the  fertility 
of  the  soil,  the  mildness  of  the  climate,  and  a  mari- 
time position  favorable  to  commerce,  afford  means 
for  the  development  of  civilization  ;  in  these  few  and 
favored  cases,  —  t>f  which  the  coasts  and  islands  of 
the  Mediterranean  Sea  have  afforded  the  principal 
historical  instances,  —  a  new  series  of  political  changes 
9 


98  THEOK*     OF    POLITICS. 

presents  itself,  which  will  best  be  illustrated  by  direct 
reference  to  the  history  of  the  Grecian  and  Roman 
commonwealths. 

SECTION  SECOND. 

Illustrations  from    Grecian   History.     The    Primitive 
Grecian   Kingdoms. 

IT  would  seem,  from  the  genealogical  and  myth- 
ological traditions,  which  furnish  all  the  verbal  me- 
morials that  we  have  of  the  state  of  things  in  Greece 
previous  to  the  establishment  of  the  Grecian  repub- 
lics or  commonwealths,  as  well  as  from  many  customs 
and  observances  which  prevailed  subsequently  to  that 
period,  that  the  Greeks  originally  consisted  of  a 
number  of  pastoral,  migratory  confederacies  or  clans, 
of  which  the  Dorians  and  lonians  were,  or  finally 
became,  the  most  famous ;  protected  from  conquest 
during  the  ante-historic  'ages,  as  they  were  during 
the  illustrious  portion  of  their  historical-period,  by  the 
mountains  and  fastnesses  among  which  they  dwelt. 
Certain  foreign  adventurers  —  fugitive  priekts,  pirates, 
merchants,  or  expelled  princes,  or  persons  sometimes, 
perhaps,  combining  all  these  characters  —  arrived 
among  these  tribes,  from  Phoenicia,  Egypt,  and  Asia 
Minor,  countries,  compared  with  Greece  as  it  then 
was,  possessing  a  high  degree  of  civilization.  These 
adventurers  brought  with  them  the  use  of  letters,  the 
knowledge  of  navigation,  agriculture,  and  the  arts  ; 
and  partly  by  their  superior  knowledge  and  sagacity, 
and  partly  by  the  influence  of  mystical  ideas,  —  for 


OLIGARCHIES,    ARISTOCRACIES,    ETC.  99 

the  Greeks,  like  all  uncultivated  people,  were  very 
superstitious,  of  which  these  foreigners  seem  generally 
to  have  taken  advantage  to  represent  themselves  as 
the  children  oV  favorites  of  some  god,  —  they  raised 
themselves  to  the  chieftaincy  of  the  several  tribes. 
In  imitation  of  the  countries  whence  they  came,  they 
built  walled  towns  for  defence  against  predatory  in- 
cursions, they  raised  temples,  established  religious 
ceremonies  and  festivals,  and  introduced  agriculture 
and  some  commencement  of  civilization.  Such  is  the 
state  of  Greece,  as  presented  to  us  in  the  poems  of 
Homer,  —  the  earliest  written  memorials  of  that 
country,  if  not  indeed  of  any  country,  which  we 
possess,  —  and  in  the  traditions  on  which  the  Greek 
tragedies  were  founded ;  out  of  which  the  writers  of  the 
Alexandrine  school  attempted  to  construct  a  regular 
history  and  chronology,  commencing  with  the  first 
Olympiad,  (B.  C.  776,)  and  even  running  back  for 
certain  ages  anterior  to  that  period. 


SECTION  THIRD. 

Greek    Oligarchies,    Aristocracies,    Democracies, 
Tyrannies. 

THE  line  of  direct  descent,  in  the  families  of  the 
Greek  chieftains  of  the  heroic  age,  having  come  to  an 
end,  and  there  being  no  single  person  in  the  com- 
munity upon  whom  the  joint  influence  of  mystical 
ideas,  of  the  notion  of  property  in  power,  and  of 
traditional  respect,  united  to  confer  the  successorship, 
the  government  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  number  of 


100  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

families,  greater  or  less,  which  excelled  in  wealth, 
which  claimed  collateral  descent  from  the  former 
kings,  and  which,  by  engrossing  the  priesthood,  and 
the  administration  of  religious  ceremonies,  were  able 
to  avail  themselves,  more  or  less,  of  the  influence  of 
mystical  ideas.  This  mystical  influence,  in  the  earlier 
periods  of  Grecian  history,  was  very  considerable  ; 
but  it  never,  as  with  the  Egyptians,  Etruscans,  and 
Druidical  Gauls,  superseded  or  obtained  the  control 
of  the  other  elements  of  power ;  so  that  Greece,  not- 
withstanding the  excessive  superstition  of  its  earlier 
inhabitants,  of  which  so  many  strong  instances  appear 
in  Herodotus,  was  fortunately  preserved  from  a  theo- 
cratic government. 

This  new  form  of  administration,  known  afterwards, 
when  the  Greeks  came  to  consider  the  subject  philo- 
sophically, as  an  OLIGARCHY,  or  government  of  a  few, 
continued  to  prevail,  especially  among  the  Dorian 
clans,  for  several  generations.  But,  for  the  most  part, 
the  few  ruling  families  found  themselves  constrained 
to  admit,  from  time  to  time,  other  families,  which  had 
acquired  wealth  and  influence,  to  share  their  authority ; 
till  the  government  gradually  became  what  the  Greeks 
called,  and  we  call  after  them,  an  ARISTOCRACY  ;  liter- 
ally, a  government  of  the  best  —  either  best  in  point 
of  birth,  or  best  in  point  of  wealth,  the  phrase 
good  being  often,  in  the  language  of  politics,  as  in 
that  of  commerce,  synonymous  with  wealthy.  Nor 
indeed  is  this  confusion  of  terms  entirely  destitute 
of  foundation  in  fact,  since  the  possession  of  a  com- 
petency, by  relieving  men  from  the  constant  and  over- 
whelming pressure  of  several  imperious  wants,  puts 
them  into  a  position  in  which  virtue  becomes  at  least 
possible. 


ARISTOCRACIES,    TYRANNY,    ETC.  101 

When  this  aristocracy,  or  government  of  the  well- 
born and  wealthy,  was  so  extended  as  to  admit  all 
the  free  citizens  to  share  in  the  administration,  it  was 
then  distinguished  as  a  DEMOCRACY.  But  this  Gre- 
cian democracy,  it  is  to  be  noted,  was  still  a  select 
class  limited  to  those  who  possessed  the  right  of  citi- 
zenship, and  excluding  slaves,  freedmen  who  had  been 
slaves,  strangers,  and  mere  denizens ;  who  together 
often  made  up  the  bulk  of  the  population ;  such,  in- 
deed, as  would  be  regarded,  in  our  day,  as  still  a 
pretty  select  aristocracy. 

It  would,  however,  occasionally  happen  that  some 
individual  citizen  of  great  wealth,  warlike  skill  and 
science,  sagacity,  eloquence,  or  reputation  for  patriot- 
ism, was  able  to  obtain  such  an  influence  over  the 
community  as  to  concentrate  the  whole  administra- 
tion of  the  government  in  his  own  hands ;  and,  in 
later  times,  the  same  object  was  frequently  accom- 
plished by  the  employment  of  mercenary  troops,  by 
whom  the  citizens  were  kept  in  obedience  and  awe. 
This  form  of  government  —  a  restoration  of  mon- 
archy equally  disagreeable  to  the  partisans  of  oli- 
garchical, aristocratic,  and  democratic  administration 
—  was  called  a  TYRANNY  —  a  name  to  which  the 
ideas  of  usurpation  and  violence  were  intimately 
attached.  It  was  in  the  hatred  and  dread  of  tyranny 
that  the  practice  of  ostracism  and  other  similar  con- 
trivances originated,  by  which  the  Greek  common- 
wealths were  enabled  to  rid  themselves  of  the  presence 
of  citizens  who,  by  reason  either  of  their  talents,  their 
wealth,  or  even  their  virtues,  appeared  so  influential 
as  to  threaten  the  concentration  of  all  power  in  them- 
selves. 

9* 


102  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

SECTION  FOURTH. 
Greek  Revolutions.     Secondary  Monarchy. 

THE  Greek  oligarchical  forms  of  government  were 
much  the  most  permanent,  which  is  to  be  ascribed,  in 
part,  to  the  fact  that  they  chiefly  existed  in  the  purely 
m  agricultural  states,  in  which  the  movement  of  ideas  is 
always  comparatively  slow.  Such  was  the  govern- 
ment of  Sparta.  Athens,  Syracuse,  and  many  other 
states,  made  opulent  by  commerce,  were  greatly  dis- 
tracted, and  were  exposed  to  constant  revolutions  by 
struggles  for  power  between  the  poorer  citizens,  called 
the  democracy,  and  the  richer  citizens,  called  the  aris- 
tocracy ;  these  aristocracies  corresponding,  in  fact,  to 
the  Spartan  oligarchy,  and  generally  keeping  up  a 
close  correspondence  and  alliance  with  it.  The  dem- 
ocratical  and  aristocratical  factions,  as  they  succes- 
sively obtained  power,  treated  their  opponents  with 
great  severity.  Death,  confiscation,  and  banishment 
were  frequently  inflicted  by  either  party,  as  it  alter 
nately  prevailed ;  and  the  bitterness  of  the  feud  was 
thus  constantly  aggravated.  Sometimes  the  govern- 
ment assumed  the  form  of  a  tyranny  —  which  fre- 
quently happened  after  the  advance  of  refinement  and 
luxury  had  made  the  hardships  of  war  distasteful  to 
the  rich,  and  had  led  to  the  introduction  of  mercenary 
soldiers,  always  ready  to  fight  for  any  body  who 
would  pay  them. 

At  length  appeared  upon  the  stage  Philip  of  Mace- 
don,  a  man  of  great  sagacity,  policy,  skill  in  army, 
courage,  activity,  perseverance,  and  self-control,  de- 


SECONDARY    MONARCHY,    ETC.  103 

scended  from  an  ancient  Greek  family,  which  had 
raised  itself  to  the  kingship  of  the  Macedonians  — 
exactly  as,  in  earlier  ages,  foreign  adventurers  had 
established  similar  kingdoms  in  Greece  itself.  Avail- 
ing himself  of  the  physical  force  thus  aggregated  in 
his  hands,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  decay  of  the 
military  spirit,  and  of  personal  skill  and  hardihood, 
among  those  in  the  Greek  commonwealths  who  exer- 
cised the  political  power,  and  especially  of  their  do- 
mestic quarrels,  he  accomplished  that  in  which,  as  to 
the  European  Greeks,  the  kings  of  Persia  had  failed 
some  two  centuries  before ;  being  enabled  to  reduce 
the  whole  body  of  them,  at  least  those  of  the  primi- 
tive and  central  Greece,  to  a  dependence  on  himself. 
His  son  Alexander,  still  more  distinguished  for  his 
personal  qualities,  by  the  help  of  Greek  mercenaries, 
who  had  carried  the  science  of  war  to  a  perfection 
elsewhere  unknown,  established  a  vast  empire,  which 
fell,  however,  into  fragments  immediately  after  his 
death. 

Several  of  these  fragments  were  seized  upon  and 
held  by  the  generals  of  Alexander's  army ;  others  were 
taken  possession  of  or  regained  by  the  native  princes. 
The  main  support  of  the  Greek  kingdoms  established 
on  the  ruins  of  Alexander's  empire  was  a  standing 
army  of  mercenary  troops  trained  after  the  Greek 
model,  and  fed  and  paid  out  of  the  revenues  of  the 
state  ;  a  comparatively  small  body  armed,  disciplined, 
and  acting  in  concert  being  an  overmatch  for  almost 
any  number  unarmed,  uninstructed,  untrained,  and 
uncombined.  This  form  of  government,  for  the  sake 
of  distinction,  we  denominate  SECONDARY  MONARCHY. 
\s  in  the  case  of  the  primitive  monarchy,  traditionary 


104  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

respect,  the  idea  of  property  in  power,  and,  to  a  certain 
extent,  mystical  influences  also,  are  presently  added  to 
the  mere  force  out  of  which  it  at  first  grew ;  and,  in 
the  course  of  time,  it  may  take  on  a  character  hardly 
distinguishable  from  that  of  the  original  kingdom. 


SECTION  FIFTH. 
Illustrations  from  Roman  History. 

THE  history  of  Rome  furnishes  us  with  a  series  of 
changes  similar  to  those  which  make  up  the  history 
of  the  Greek  commonwealths  —  from  monarchy  to  an 
oligarchy  of  patrician  families ;  from  oligarchy  to  an 
aristocracy,  into  which  the  plebeians  were  at  first 
slowly  and  partially  admitted,  but  which  gradually 
expanded  into  what  the  Greeks  called  a  democracy ; 
from  that  back  again  to  an  oligarchy  of  three  or  four 
influential  individuals ;  from  this  new  oligarchy  to 
tyranny;  which,  dropping  by  degrees  republican  forms, 
changed  gradually  into  secondary  monarchy. 

We  may  discover,  howeyer,  in  the  Roman  com- 
monwealth a  political  phenomenon  scarcely  percepti- 
ble, if  at  all,  in  the  Grecian  states,  but  elsewhere 
much  more  fully  developed,  and  of  which  we  shall 
have  presently  more  to  say  —  that  of  the  division  and 
distribution  of  power.  In  the  case  of  the  Roman 
commonwealth,  this  distribution  took  place  between 
a  narrow  aristocracy  represented  by  the  senate  and 
the  comitia  centuriata,  (in  which  latter  assembly  the 
few  rich  decided  every  thing,)  and  a  more  extended 
aristocracy,  of  that  kind  called  by  the  Greeks  a 


ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    ROMAN    HISTORY.  105 

democracy,  acting  through  the  agency  of  the  comitia 
tributa.  Instead  of  struggling  for  power,  and  alter- 
nately possessing  it,  these  differently-constituted  as- 
semblies exercised  a  concurrent,  and,  but  for  the  trib- 
uriitian  office,  almost  an  independent  authority.  The 
tribunes  of  the  people,  elected  by  the  comitia  tributa, 
possessed,  indeed,  the  singular  right  of  putting  a  veto 
upon  the  decrees  of  the  senate,  and  the  acts  of  the 
magistrates  elected  by  the  comitia  centuriata.  In  fact, 
however,  notwithstanding  this  check,  the  senatorial 
power  was,  pending  the  whole  continuance  of  the 
commonwealth,  except  during  two  or  three  temporary 
outbreaks,  always  in  the  ascendant.  The  tribunes 
were  always  overawed,  bribed,  or  assassinated  by 
the  senatorial  party.  The  attempts  of  the  Gracchi 
and  others  to  share  among  the  mass  of  the  citizens 
some  portion  of  that  plunder  of  conquest  which  the 
senators  divided  so  liberally  among  themselves  were 
promptly  and  violently  suppressed.  The  temporary 
triumph  of  the  popular  party  under  Marius,  in  spite 
of  the  senatorial  blood  shed  to  perpetuate  it,  was 
immediately  succeeded  by  the  proscription  and  the 
dictatorship  of  Sylla,  who  restored  the  power  again 
to  senatorial  hands.  Ultimately,  however,  the  senate 
fell  into  subjection  to  a  triumvirate  of  its  own  mem- 
bers, placed,  one  of  them  by  his  immense  wealth,  and 
the  others  by  prolonged  and  almost  independent  mili- 
tary commands,  quite  beyond  senatorial  control.  That 
triumvirate,  dissolved  by  the  death  of  Crassus,  was 
succeeded  by  a  struggle  for  power  between  Pompey, 
who  claimed  to  act  for  the  senate,  and  Caesar,  who 
intrigued  with,  and  used  for  his  own  purposes,  the 
tribunes  of  the  people  —  a  struggle  ending  in  the 


100  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

dictatorship  of  Caesar,  who,  instead  of  strengthening 
the  democracy  at  the  expense  of  the  senate,  as  Marius 
had  done,  sacrificed  both  to  make  himself  perpetual 
dictator  and  tyrant.  The  tyrant  fell  by  the  daggers 
of  Brutus  and  Cassius ;  but  they  were  unable  to  re- 
establish the  senatorial  authority ;  and  the  govern- 
ment soon  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  new  triumvirate, 
ending  in  the  sole  reign  of  Octavius  Caesar,  who 
quietly  transmitted  the  supreme  control  to  a  successor 
of  his  own  appointment.  , 

The  authority  of  the  Roman  emperors,  in  the  days 
of  the  first  Caesars,  was  chiefly  sustained  by  the  arms 
of  the  legions,  and  of  the  praetorian  guards ;  and, 
down  to  the  final  termination  of  the  empire,  when- 
ever an  emperor  had  fixed  upon  his  successor,  the  first 
step  was  to  get  him  acknowledged  as  such  by  the 
soldiers.  But,  in  process  of  time,  there  sprung  up  a 
traditionary  respect  for  the  imperial  authority,  by 
which  it  was  greatly  strengthened  in  the  hands  of 
whomsoever  possessed  it. 

As  in  the  early  days  of  Greece,  so  in  the  earlier 
times  of  Rome,  mysticism  had  been  a  great  bulwark 
of  authority.  The  office  of  priest  and  augur  had 
been  combined  with  that  of  magistrate,  and  the  sen- 
ate had  made*  great  use  of  this  influence  to  awe  or 
baffle  the  people,  and  to  sustain  its  own  authority. 
With  the  advance  of  science,  and  the  consequent 
decrease  of  superstition  among  the  more  enlightened 
portions  of  the  community,  this  source  of  power  had 
very  much  diminished ;  which  circumstance  will  en- 
able us  to  understand  the  lamentations  of  certain 
Greek  and  Roman  authors  over  the  decay  of  religion. 
The  earlier  Roman  emperors,  however,  took  care  to 


ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    ROMAN    HISTORY.  107 

• 

combine  in  their  persons,  along  with  all  the  chief  civil 
dignities  of  the  republic,  that,  also,  of  supreme  pontiff 
With  the  subsequent  decline  of  science,  the  influence 
of  mystical  ideas  revived  ;  and  the  spread  and  growth 
of  the  Christian  church  introduced  a  new  power  into 
politics.  But  presently  this  new  power,  found  by 
trial  too  potent  to  be  resisted,  was  availed  of  for  the 
support  of  the  empire  by  the  adoption,  under  Constan- 
tine  and  his  successors,  of  the  Christian  religion  as 
that  of  the  state ;  from  which  time  forwa'rd,  the  in- 
fluence of  the  clergy  has  continued  a  very  powerful 
element  in  European  politics. 


108  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

• 

CHAPTER  IV. 

REVOLUTIONS   OF  MYSTICAL  GOVERNMENTS. 

HAVING  thus  considered  the  cycle  of  changes 
through  which  the  original  forensic  monarchy  may 
pass,  it  remains  to  trace  the  revolutions  of  the  mys- 
tical monarchy,  the  other  original  type  of  that  form 
of  government. 

We  have  already  explained  how  the  original  mys- 
tical monarchy  springs  up  among  savage  tribes.  But 
the  same  form  of  government;  often  takes  its  origin  in 
a  community  possessing  an  organized  system  of  some 
of  the  kinds  already  described.  Sometimes  this  is 
the  mere  revolt  of  a  conquered  priesthood,  against 
some  foreign  yoke  imposed  upon  them ;  the  reestab- 
lishment  of  some  old  theocracy  ;  the  high  priests,  upon 
the  overturn  of  the  foreign  power,  raising  themselves 
to  the  position  of  kings.  Such  was  the  Jewish  mon- 
archy founded  by  Judas  Maccabeus.  In  other  cases, 
the  new  monarchy  first  presents  itself  as  a  religious 
sect,  the  head  of  which  claims  a  special  divine  author- 
ity —  sometimes  as  the  founder  of  a  new  religion,  but 
oftener  as  the  reviver  and  reformer  of  an  old  one. 
Sometimes  such  a  new  sect  spreads  rapidly,  raising 
its  founder,  or  his  immediate  successors,  to  so  great 
an  influence  and  power,  that  he  is  able  to  overturn 
the  existing  government,  and  to  establish  a  theocracy 
in  its  place,  of  which  he  becomes  the  head.  Such  was 
the  case  with  Mohammedanism.  In  other  instances, 
the  new  sect  increases  only  by  slow  degrees,  remains 
for  a  long  time  an  imperium  in  imperio,  and  only  after 


REVOLUTIONS    OF    MYSTICAL    GOVERNMENTS.        109 

a  long  struggle  with  the  existing  government,  and 
enduring  many  persecutions  from  it,  makes  good  its 
supremacy,  and  either  supersedes  that  old  government 
or  else  rules  through  it  —  revolutions  of  which  the 
history  of  the  Christian  church  furnishes  abundant 
examples. 

All  theocracies  are  monarchical  in  their  inception, 
and  are  always  so  in  theory ;  but  upon  the  death  of 
the  founder,  or  any  interruption  in  the  line  of  his 
successors,  they  may,  like  the  forensic  monarchy, 
take  on  an  oligarchical  or  aristocratical  form,  the 
administration  being  shared  among  a  number,  greater 
or  less,  of  the  priests  or  ministers,  who  rule  in  the 
name  of  the  deified  founder ;  or,  by  admitting  the  great 
mass  of  believers  to  a  share  of  authority,  they  may 
even  assume  a  democratical  shape.  Such  seems  to 
have  been  the  case  in  the  early  days  of  the  Christian 
religion  ;  and  it  is  perhaps  in  a  considerable  degree  to 
this  democratical  element  that  we  are  to  ascribe  the 
progress  of  that  church  during  the  first  two  centuries  — 
that  interesting,  but  very  obscure,  period  of  its  history. 

It  generally  happens,  however,  that,  by  a  process 
very  similar  to  that  to  be  presently  described  in 
the  case  of  certain  forensic  governments,  a  select 
body,  tending  constantly  to  grow  still  more  and  more 
select, — the  professors,  the  elders,  the  priests,  the 
bishops,  —  sooner  or  later  usurp  the  whole  control,  and 
subject  the  mass  of  the  laity  to  a  servile  submission. 
A  theocratic  order  of  nobility,  often  hereditary,  thus 
once  established,  by  processes  analogous  to  those 
already  pointed  out  in  the  case  of  lay  aristocracies, 
it  is  occasionally  superseded,  now  by  a  theocratic  oli- 
garchy, and  now  by  a  theocratic  tyranny,  liable  to< 
10 


110  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

be  again  replaced  by  theocratic  aristocracy,  or  theo- 
cratic democracy.  Such  was  the  revolution  by  which 
the  power  and  influence  of  the  Catholic  clergy,  after 
rising  to  a  great  height,  was  overturned  in  all  the 
nations  of  Northern  Europe,  and  superseded  by  a  new 
Protestant  priesthood.  It  is  true  that  in  some  of  the 
Protestant  states  —  as,  for  instance,  in  England,  and 
in  many  of  the  countries  which  adopted  Lutheranism 
—  this  change  was  more  apparent  than  real  ;  the 
Protestant  clergy  in  those  countries  being  little  else 
than  a  continuation  of  the  Popish  clergy,  with  some 
trifling  modifications  in  ceremonies  and  articles  of 
belief.  In  Scotland  and  the  Calvinistic  states,  the 
change  was  somewhat  more  complete  ;  but  it  was 
only  among  the  Anabaptists  and  the  English  In- 
dependents that  the  revolution  received  its  extreme 
democratic  development.  Claiming  an  entire  spiritual 
equality  for  all'  the  members  of  the  Christian  brother- 
hood, those  sects  recognized,  in  fact,  no  priests.  But, 
as  in  the  case  of  other  similar  democratic  claims,  it 
has  not  been  found  very  easy  to  substantiate  this  one 
in  practice ;  since  in  no  single  thing  are  men  more 
unequal  than  in  their  capacity  to  be  acted  upon  by 
mystical  ideas  and  convictions.  A  leadership  and 
control  over  their  admiring  and  awe-struck  brethren 
falls  naturally  into  the  hands  of  the  specially  gifted ; 
and  the  attempt  to  carry  out  the  theory  of  absolute 
human  equality  proves  still  more  a  failure,  if  possible, 
in  religious  than  in  civil  organizations. 


DISTRIBUTION    OF    AUTHORITY,    ETC.  Ill 


CHAPTER  V. 

DISTRIBUTION  AND  DIVISION  OF  AUTHORITY. 
MIXED    FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

SECTION  FIRST. 

State  of  Things  ivhich  attended  and  followed  the 
Downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Serfdom  sub- 
stituted for  Chattel  Slavery. 

IN  the  slight  sketch  given  above  of  the  Roman 
history,  reference  was  made  to  a  curious  political 
phenomenon,  not  elsewhere  so  clearly  developed  in 
ancient  historical  times  —  that  of  a  distribution  or 
division  of  the  sovereignty  between  two  distinct 
orders  in  the  state.  In  the  period  subsequent  to  the 
downfall  of  the  Roman  empire,  this  phenomenon 
became  still  more  distinctly  and  remarkably  de- 
veloped. 

The  governments  existing  among  the  Gothic  and 
German  hordes,  when  they  first  commenced  their 
inroads  upon  the  Roman  empire,  were  primitive 
monarchies  of  the  kind  already  described,  essentially 
the  same  with  the  Homeric  monarchy  of  the  Greeks, 
and  the  chieftaincies  of  the  Scotch  and  Irish  clans,  the 
extent  of  the  power  of  the  rulers  being  greatly  de- 
pendent on  their  own  individual  energy. 
%  These  moving  bands  of  shepherd  warriors,  after 
being  repeatedly  repulsed,  and  as  often  bought  off', 
finally  established  themselves  within  the  borders  of 
the  empire,  and  seizing  upon  the  lands,  slaves,  and 


112  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

other  property  of  the  Roman  nobles  and  clergy,  ap- 
propriated them,  in  whole  or  in  part,  to  their  own 
use.  But  soon  enervated  by  wealth  and  luxury,  they 
were  presently  swept  away  by  bands  of  more  sturdy 
barbarians  fresh  from  the  north  and  east,  who,  in 
their  turn,  made  a  similar  appropriation  of  the  wealth 
they  found ;  and  in  their  turn  were  subdued  and 
swept  away  by  new  invaders. 

For  upwards  of  six  centuries,  Goths,  Vandals, 
Allemanni,  Suevi,  Lombards,  Franks,  Saxons,  Avars, 
Normans,  and  various  Slavic  and  Turkish  tribes  con- 
tended with  each  other,  and  with  the  descendants  of 
the  Roman  provincial  population,  for  the  possession  of 
Europe,  or  of  parts  of  it.  At  an  early  day  of  this  dark 
period,  the  Western  empire  was  overrun  —  and  for  the 
moment  almost  subdued  —  by  a  vast  array  of  Huns, 
from  the  confines  of  China.  At  a  later  day,  the  same 
territories  had  almost  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
Saracens,  who,  following  the  south  shore  of  the 
Mediterranean,  •  and  having  subdued  the  Roman 
African  provinces,  obtained  possession  of  Spain  and 
Sicily,  whence  they  penetrated  into  France  and  Italy, 
from  which  they  were  with  difficulty  repulsed.  , 

In  consequence  of  these  perpetual  struggles  for  the 
ever-diminishing  remnants  of  Roman  wealth,  and  the 
disorders  and  insecurities  attendant  upon  them,  the 
civilization  and  the  population  of  Europe  retrograded 
from  century  to  century.  The  attempt  of  Charle- 
magne to  build  up  again  an  empire  of  the  West 
failed  with  his  life.  His  dominion  was  soon  split  into 
numberless  fragments,  still  further  wasted  by  Norman, 
Slavonic,  Saracen,  and  Madjar  invasions,  while  the 
Holy  Roman  empire,  by  him  reestablished,  became, 
like  its  predecessor,  ^ut  an  emoty  name. 


SERFDOM    IN    EUROPE,  I 'Ui 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century  Europe 
was  reduced  to  such  a  state  of  poverty  and  desolation 
that  there  seemed  hardly  any  thing  left  to  plunder ;  yet 
this  very  impoverishment  appears  to  have  been  an 
essential  step  towards  introducing  a  great  social 
change  —  one  of  the  main  corner  stones  of  the  new 
edifice  of  civilization  about  to  be  raised  on  the  ruins 
of  the  old. 

The  race  of  slaves,  the  sole  cultivators  of  the  broad 
and  once  wealthy  domains  of  the  Roman  provinces, 
seem  never  to  have  offered  the  slightest  resistance  to 
any  invader.  It  was,  indeed,  the  lack  of  free  men 
who  could  be  turned  into  soldiers  —  for  which  purpose 
the  enervated  town  inhabitants  were  unfit — that  made 
it  so  difficult  to  defend  the  empire,  which  was  only 
maintained,  from  the  first,  by  the  ingenious  device  of 
employing  the  barbarians  to  fight  each  other.  With 
the  decline  of  wealth,  not  only  did  the  importation  of 
new  slaves  come,  for  the  most  part,  to  an  end,  but 
the  old  ones,  or  their  descendants,  became  attached 
to  the  soil  —  no  longer  chattel  slaves,  but  serfs,  bound 
to  the  la/id,  and  constituting,  along  with  it,  one 
article  of  property.  These  serfs,  from  the  moment 
of  becoming  such,  began  to  acquire  additional  privi- 
leges. Some  presently  became  tenants,  at  a  fixed 
rent,  in  labor,  produce,  or  money,  to  which  the  de- 
mands of  the  lord  were  limited.  Others,  escaping 
into  the  towns,  became  citizens  there. 

Many  circumstances,  not  necessary  to  mention 
here,  have  contributed  to  the  gradual,  though  as 
yet  very  imperfect,  emancipation  of  the  laboring 
classes  of  Europe  —  the  first  step  towards  the  erection 
of  the  system  of  modern  civilization  ;  a  civilization, 
10* 


114  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

however,  at  present  incomplete,  yet  far  superior  to 
that  of  the  ancients ;  which,  in  the  universal  enslave- 
ment of  the  laboring  classes,  carried  within  its  own 
bosom  the  seeds  of  inevitable  decay.  It  was  in  this 
new  race  of  freemen  —  having  now  an  interest  in  the 
soil,  or  town  hearthstones  of  their  own  to  defend  — 
that  the  means  of  effectual  and  permanent  resistance 
to  new  invasions  of  wandering  tribes  of  warlike  shep- 
herds first  presented  itself. 


SECTION  SECOND. 
Origin  and  Character  of  the  Feudal  System. 

THIS  new  array  of  the  resident  population  for  self- 
defence  against  that  tide  of  military  spoliation  which 
for  so  many  ages  had  so  resistlessly  and  fatally  swept 
over  Europe,  gradually  took  on  the  form  of  what 
finally  became  so  famous  as  the  Feudal  System  —  a 
system  in  which  we  find  comprehended  many  frag- 
ments of  the  organization  introduced  by  Constantine 
and  his  successors  for  the  defence  of  the  later  Roman 
empire,  many  barbaric  usages  which  the  invading 
tribes  had  brought  with  them  from  the  plains  of 
Sarmatia  and  the  woods  of  Germany,  and  many 
customs  produced  by  the  necessities  of  the  moment 
or  by  local  convenience.  The  leading  idea,  however, 
was,  that  the  possession  and  usufruct  of  the  land 
should  be  in  the  hands  of  fighting  men,  bound  to 
maintain  it,  and  the  lords  under  whom  they  held  it, 
against  all  aggressors. 

As  the  Roman  empire  had   been  formed   by  the 


THE    FEUDAL    SYSTEM.  115 

subjection  of  a  vast  many  independent  communities, 
so,  in  the  process  by  which  the  feudal  system  was 
arrived  at,  that  empire  had  again  resolved  itself  into 
elements,  similar,  in  many  respects,  to  those  out  of 
which  it  had  been  originally  aggregated.  For  out  of 
its  ruins  there  sprung  up  not  only  a  great  number  of 
feudal  dukedoms  or  counties,  nearly  or  quite  inde- 
pendent, —  the  Roman  titles  of  dukes  or  counts,  given 
originally  to  the  imperial  officers  of  certain  territorial 
divisions,  superseding  for  the  most  part  the  native 
appellations  of  the  barbaric  chiefs,  —  but  the  wasted 
remnants  of  ancient  cities  now  recovered  again  that 
independence  which  for  so  many  ages  they  had  lost ; 
and  among  the  other  various  changes  that  were  going 
on,  and  under  the  shelter  of  the  walls  with  which 
those  towns  now  began  again  to  surround  themselves, 
republican  governments  once  more  reappeared. 

Yet  amid  all  this  resolution  of  the  Roman  empire 
into  detached  and  independent  fragments,  there  still 
survived  certain  ideas  of  unity,  constituting,  indeed, 
an  essential  part  of  the  feudal  system  ;  ideas  which 
tended  to  the  reconsolidation  of  authority ;  but  upon 
a  principle  essentially  different  from  that  mere  aggre- 
gation of  conquests  to  which  the  Roman  empire  had 
owed  its  origin. 

SECTION  THIRD. 
Monarchy  as  an  Element  of  the  Feudal  System. 

As  the  barbarian,  conquering  Romans  were  them- 
selves subdued  by  the  superior  knowledge  and  refine- 
ment of  the  conquered  nations,  particularly  of  the 


116  T.HEORY  OF  POLITICS. 

Greeks,  and  the  communities  under  Greek  influence, 
in  like  manner  were  the  northern  and  eastern  bar- 
barians who  conquered  the  Roman  empire  sub- 
jugated by  the  language,  manners,  and  ideas  of- 
the  people  they  had  overrun.  In  imitation  of  the 
Roman  emperors,  the  barbarian  princes  promulgated 
codes,  borrowed  as  to  many  particulars  from  Ro- 
man models.  Copying  from  those  same  models,  they 
assumed  new  airs,  dignities,  and  titles,  claiming 
for  themselves  a  certain  portion  of  that  traditionary 
respect  and  supereminent  honor  which  not  only  the 
citizens  of  Rome,  (and  all  the  free  subjects  of  the  em- 
pire had  come  in  time  to  be  acknowledged  as  Roman 
citizens,)  but  their  own  predecessors  also,  had  long 
paid  to  the  Roman  emperors.  In  the  progress  of 
darkness,  barbarism,  and  disunion,  these  ideas  became, 
indeed,  almost  extinct ;  but  presently  the  revival  of  the 
study  of  the  civil  law  reproduced  them  with  fresh  force. 
It  was  this  notion  of  central,  imperial  authority 
which  still  gave  a  certain  unity  to  France,  Germany, 
and  Italy,  even  after  they  were  split  into  an  infinity  of 
dukedoms,  counties,  and  municipalities,  many  of  them 
substantially  independent ;  and  it  is  this  same  idea 
which  forms  the  key  to  the  struggles  carried  on  for  so 
many  centuries  between  the  kings  on  the  one  hand 
and  the  feudal  nobility  on  the  other  —  the  muni- 
cipalities and  the  clergy  appearing,  at  different  times, 
on  either  side  ;  a  struggle  which  terminated  in  Ger- 
many in  the  almost  complete  triumph  of  the  feuda- 
taries,  but  in  England  and  France  in  the  reestablish- 
ment  of  the  authority  of  the  monarch. 


THE    FEUDAL    SYSTEM.  117 


SECTION  FOURTH. 

The  Power  of  the  Clergy  as  an  Element  of  the  Feudal 
System. 

STILL  another  idea,  which  survived  the  downfall  of 
the  Roman  empire,  and  which  operated  to  retain  not 
single  countries  only,  but  the  whole  of  Christendom, 
—  notwithstanding  the  thousand  fragments  into  which 
it  was  divided,  —  in  a  certain  bond  of  connection, 
was,  the  idea  of  the  unity  of  the  Christian  church. 

The  obscure  rise  of  the  Christian  sect  during  the 
first  century  and  a  half  of  our  era,  the  wealth,  and  pres- 
ently the  political  power,  which,  after  a  certain  period 
of  slow  and  unnoted  progress,  the  Christian  priest- 
hood rapidly  acquired,  during  the  second,  third,  and 
fourth  centuries,  making  even  the  imperial  power 
but  a  stepping-stone  for  their  advancement,  is  one 
of  the  many  astonishing  revolutions  to  be  traced  to 
the  influence  of  mystical  ideas.  The  successive 
hordes  of  barbarians  which  overwhelmed  Europe  were, 
at  first,  all  heathens,  the  Saracens  excepted,  who 
were  under  the  influence  of  a  mystical  system  of  their 
own,  which  rivalled,  and  at  one  time  threatened  to 
extinguish,  the  system  of  the  Christian  church.  But, 
like  all  ignorant  men,  these  barbarians  were  extremely 
susceptible  to  the  influence  of  mystical  ideas ;  and 
though  they  began  by  plundering  and  murdering  the 
monks  and  the  bishops,  they  always  ended  by  being 
converted  and  baptized,  and  by  giving  back  to  their 
ghostly  fathers  a  great  deal  more  than  they  had 
taken  away. 


118  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

Encouraged  by  this  docility  on  the  pan  of  their 
new  converts,  the  clergy  were  not  long  content  with 
mere  gifts  of  lands  and  goods.  They  sometimes  ob- 
tained by  grant  and  concession,  and  sometimes  they 
usurped,  rights  of  jurisdiction  also  ;  so  that  presently 
a  whole  host  of  mitred  abbots  and  bishops  appeared 
upon  the  scene  of  the  feudal  times,  with  the  crosier  in 
the  one  hand  and  the  sword  in  the  other,  struggling 
with  the  kings  and  the  nobles  for  independent  polit- 
ical power. 

Very  early  in  that  age,  —  at  a  period  when  nobody 
hardly  but  monks  and  priests  could  read,  and  when 
almost  the  entire  intelligence  of  the  community  was 
to  be  found  in  the  clerical  order,  —  the  clergy,  under 
the  able  leadership  of  Gregory  VII. ,  came  very  near 
establishing  a  grand  theocratic  monarchy  throughout 
Christendom,  (from  that  time  to  this  the  beau  ideal 
of  the  ultra  Papists,)  of  which  the  pope  was  to  be 
the  head,  the  bishops  and  abbots  the  administrators, 
and  the  kings  and  nobles  the  humble  and  submissive 
instruments — instruments  which  might  presently  have 
been  dispensed  with  altogether. 

Though  this  magnificent  scheme  for  a  theocratic 
monarchy  over  all  Christendom,  and  ultimately  over 
the  whole  world,  did  not  succeed,  yet  several  bishops 
of  the  German  empire,  as  well  as  the  pope,  were  able 
to  establish  their  supreme  and  independent  dominion 
over  extensive  and  populous  districts,  of  which  they 
became  the  theocratic  princes.  The  English  and 
French  clergy,  on  the  other  hand,  like  the  nobility 
of  the  same  countries,  found  themselves  obliged  to 
give  over  the  idea  of  independent  authority,  and  to 
be  content  with  an  influential  share  in  the  general 
administration  of  the  government, 


THE    MIDDLE    AGE    MUNICIPALITIES.  119 


SECTION  FIFTH. 

The  Feudal  Age  Municipalities.  Their  Freedom  from 
Chattel  Slavery.  Origin  and  Fundamental  Ideas  of 
Modern  Democracy. 

As  an  element  in  the  feudal  system,  in  addition 
to  the  power  of  the  nobles,  the  kings,  and  the  clergy, 
—  one  at  first  obscure  and  humble,  but  gradually  in- 
creasing in  importance,  —  must  be  mentioned  the  mu- 
nicipalities already  referred  to,  many,  indeed  most  of 
the  older  ones,  erected  on  the  very  sites  of  ancient 
cities,  older  than  the  Roman  conquest ;  and  in  and  by 
which,  with  the  commencement  of  the  feudal  times,  the 
idea  of  republicanism  was,  after  a  long  interval,  re- 
vived. 

In  the  position  finally  attained  by  these  additional 
claimants  of  authority,  we  may  observe,  as  with  re- 
spect to  the  clergy,  a  different  result  in  Italy  and 
Germany  from  that  which  took  place  in  England  and 
France. 

In  Italy,  at  an  early  period  of  the  feudal  times,  and 
subsequently  in  Germany,  a  large  number  of  these 
municipalities  became,  in  fact,  if  not  in  name,  entirely 
independent ;  and  several  of  them  reached  a  pitch  of 
opulence  and  power  such  as  enabled  them  to  contend 
and  to  take  rank  with  popes,  kings,  and  emperors. 
By  a  departure  from  the  principles  upon  which  they 
had  been  originally  established,  and  to  which  they  had 
owed,  in  a  great  measure,  their  rise  and  importance, 
all  these  feudal  age  republics,  by  a  course  of  revolu- 
tions which  vividly  recalls  the  history  of  the  ancient 


120  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

Greeks,  fell,  at  length,  a  prey  to  domestic  tyrannies, 
monarchic  or  oligarchic,  and,  with  a  few  exceptions, 
were  ultimately  swallowed  up  by  their  stronger  neigh- 
bors, exactly  as  the  Greek  republics  had  been  at  an 
earlier  period.  In  France  and  England,  and,  we  might 
add,  in  Spain,  the  municipalities  never  obtained  an 
independent  authority,  but  were  obliged  to  be  content, 
like  the  clergy  of  those  countries,  with  being  admitted 
to  a  share,  and  at  first  a  very  moderate  one,  in  the 
control  of  the  national  government. 

As  the  civilization  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  as  well 
as  that  still  more  ancient  Phoenician  civilization  to 
which  the  early  Greeks  appear  to  have  been  so  much 
indebted,  and  which  reached  its  ultimate  develop- 
ment in  the  republic  of  Carthage,  took  its  rise  in 
the  municipal  spirit,  and  unfolded  itself,  and  attained 
its  highest  perfection,  by  means  of  republican  organ- 
izations, so  in  the  municipalities  of  the  middle  ages 
the  origin  is  to  be  sought  and  found  of  our  mod- 
ern civilization.  If,  in  our  time,  these  municipalities 
may  seem,  on  a  cursory  view,  to  have  become  less 
politically  prominent  than  formerly,  it  is  none  the  less 
a  fact  that,  so  far  from  growing  effete,  the  municipal 
spirit — that  is,  the  ideas  and  feelings  to  which  the 
municipalities  of  the  middle  ages  owed  their  rise  and 
growth  —  has  been  making,  for  centuries,  a  constant 
progress ;  modern  civilization  having  advanced  and 
extended  itself  simultaneously  with  the  municipal 
spirit,  and  just  in  proportion  to  it.  Certain  clear 
indications  also  appear  that  the  municipal  element  in 
the  mixed  governments  of  Europe,  having  undergone 
an  extension  wide  enough  to  embrace  the  whole  com- 
munity, is  destined,  and  that  at  no  distant  day,  to 


FUNDAMENTAL    IDEAS    OF    MODERN    DEMOCRACY.       121 

swallow  up  all  the  others,  and  to  vindicate  for  itself 
that  lasting  supremacy  which  priests,  nobles,  and 
monarchs  have  struggled  for  in  vain.* 

In  one  striking  and  most  important  particular,  the 
municipalities  of  the  middle  ages  appear  to  have  dif- 
fered from  those  ancient  municipalities  upon  the  sites 
of  which  many  of  them  were  erected  —  a  particular 
which  seems  to  have  produced  all  the  difference,  so 
very  great,  and,  it  may  be  said,  radical,  between  the 
civilization  of  ancient  and  of  modern  times. 

In  the  municipalities  of  the  middle  ages,  for  the 
first  time,  in  civilized  communities,  within  the  period 
of  authentic  history,  chattel  slavery  was  unknown. 
Even  serfdom  was  not  recognized ;  and  both  slaves 


*  Guizot,  in  his  History  of  the  Civilization  of  Modern  Europe,  was  the 
first  to  call  particular  attention  to  the  fourfold  distribution  of  power  in 
the  middle  ages,  such  as  it  is  above  described.  Finding  this  distribution 
of  power  between  monarchs,  nobles,  clergy,  and  municipalities  coincident 
with  the  rise  and  progress  of  modem  civilization,  he  somewhat  hastily 
concluded  that  the  continued  existence  and  balance  of  all  these  classes 
was  and  is  essential  to  that  progress.  Had  he  been  a  little  less  of  a 
scholar,  and  somewhat  more  of  a  philosopher,  or  had  he  even  possessed 
the  advantage  of  our  American  point  of  view,  a  more  profound  and 
comprehensive  study  of  history,  the  history  of  the  present  day  as  well  as 
that  of  the  middle  ages,  might  have  convinced  him  that,  in  the  progress 
of  modern  European  civilization,  the  monarchic,  aristocratic,  and  clerical 
elements  have  only  been  so  far  useful  as  tb.ey  have  served  to  counteract 
and  to  destroy  each  other ;  the  whole  of  the  actual  progress  being  due 
to  the  municipal  element  alone.  Had  M.  Guizot  more  clearly  perceived 
this  truth,  his  career  as  prime  minister  might  have  been  more  judicious 
and  more  fortunate.  Foresight  of  the  future  is  an  excellent  thing. 
Knowledge  of  the  past  is  an  excellent  thing ;  and  for  his  contributions 
to  it  M.  Guizot  is  well  entitled  to  our  respectful  gratitude.  But  for  the 
administration  of  affairs,  there  is  necessary  a  perception  of  the  present 
so  strong  and  real  as  to  throw  both  past  and  future  quite  into  perspective 
—  a  sufficient  reason  why  both  scholars  and  philosophers  may  occasion- 
ally fail  as  practical  statesmen. 

M 


122  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

and  serfs,  flying  from  the  tyranny  of  brutal  masters, 
found  convenient  refuge  and  protection  within  the 
walls  of  the  towns,  of  which  they  helped  to  augment 
the  population,  and  to  increase  the  strength  and 
wealth.  Laborious  industry,  as  well  that  of  the  me- 
chanic arts  as  of  agriculture  in  the  verge  of  territory 
attached  to  the  towns,  was  now,  for  the  first  time, 
carried  on  by  free  citizens.  Freedom  and  industry 
thus  reconciled,  the  arts,  under  their  impulse,  soon 
made  a  progress  which  first  equalled  and  finally  sur- 
passed any  thing  known  among  the  ancients.  Com- 
bining trade  with  manufactures,  to  which  those  towns 
favorably  situated  for  it,  like  Venice,  Naples,  Genoa, 
and  Pisa,  added  navigation,  these  municipalities  rap- 
idly accumulated  wealth,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
a  most  important  element  of  political  power ;  while 
the  compactness,  as  well  as  the  superior  intelligence, 
of  their  population,  by  facilitating  combined  action, 
gave  to  them  a  still  further  advantage. 

As  these  middle  age  municipalities  first  attract  the 
notice  of  history,  the  control  of  their  affairs  —  by  a 
return  to  the  simplicity  and  equality  of  the  original 
savage  tribe  —  appears  to  have  rested  with  the  body 
of  the  citizens.  The  actual  administration  seems  to 
have  been  usually  intrusted  to  a  council  periodically 
elected,  which  councils,  in  after  times,  by  processes  to 
be  hereafter  more  particularly  pointed  out.  converted 
themselves  into  hereditary  senates,  or  else  into  close 
corporations,  electing  their  own  members ;  thus  con- 
centrating the  whole  political  power  in  themselves, 
and  gradually  stripping  the  mass  of  the  citizens  of 
any  right  to  participate  in  it.  Nevertheless,  the  idea 
of  the  political  equality  of  all  the  citizens  always 


FUNDAMENTAL    IDEAS    OF    MODERN    DEMOCRACY.       123 

survived,  and  forms  a  fundamental  idea  of  modern 
democracy. 

Along  with  this  fundamental  notion  was  associated, 
in  the  early  days  of  these  feudal  age  municipalities, 
another  idea  equally  essential  to  modern  democracy, 
and  equally  fundamental  to  the  civilization  of  modern 
times — the  idea,  namely,  of  the  honorable  and  praise- 
worthy character  of  productive  industry,  whether  em- 
ployed in  agriculture,  trade,  or  the  mechanic  arts  *> 
whereas,  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  municipalities,  as 
well  as  among  all  nobilities,  whether  clerical  or  lay, 
ancient  or  modern,  (with  some  slight  exceptions,  to 
be  presently  pointed  out,  in  the  case  of  those  nobilities 
which  may  be  called  municipal  or  civic,)  trade  and 
the  arts,  especially  all  handicrafts,  were  and  are  looked 
upon  as  degrading,  and  the  actual  working  with  one's 
hands  as  fit  only  for  the  low  and  servile. 

This  latter  of  the  two  great  ideas  of  modern  de- 
mocracy—  that  of  the  honorable  character  of  produc- 
tive industry,  however  humble  —  originated  in,  and, 
indeed,  necessarily  grew  out  of,  the  important  fact, 
already  mentioned,  that  there  were  no  slaves  nor  serfs 
within  these  municipalities,  but  that  all  industrious 
occupations  were  carried  on  by  freemen  and  citizens  ; 
and  just  in  proportion  as  the  municipal  spirit  has 
diffused  itself,  has  this  idea  of  the  honorable  char- 
acter of  productive  labor  also  gained  currency. 


124  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 


SECTION  SIXTH. 

Laboring  Mass  of  the  People.  Approach,  during  the 
Feudal  Times,  to  the  Introduction  into  Europe  of  the 
System  of  Castes. 

/THE  three  orders  of  the  clergy,  the  nobles,  and  the 
burghers,  or  townspeople,  who  put  forward,  during 
the  feudal  times,  pretensions,  as  against  the  monarchs, 
to  a  share,  greater  or  less,  of  political  power,  included, 
we  must  remember,  but  a  very  small  minority  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Europe.  The  great  majority  of  the 
inhabitants  were  no  longer  chattel  slaves,  indeed,  as 
in  the  days  of  the  Roman  empire,  but  still  serfs,  at- 
tached to  the  soil,  and  belonging  with  it  to  the  mon- 
archs, clergy,  and  nobles,  and  of  course  destitute  of 
any  political  rights.  / 

The  division  of  the  Hindoos  into  the  four  great 
castes  of  priests,  (Brahmins,)  warriors,  (Shatryas,) 
merchants,  artisans,  and  agriculturists,  ( Vaisyas,)  and 
mere  laborers,  (Sudras,)  with  the  similar  division 
in  ancient  Egypt,  has  attracted  great  attention  as 
a  very  peculiar  social  phenomenon.  Yet,  as  many 
traces  of  the  feudal  system,  and  especially  of  that 
main  principle  of  it  which  vests  in  the  government 
the  ultimate  title  to  all  landed  property,  have  been 
discovered  in  India,  so  it  seems  certain  that  Europe, 
at  one  time,  was  very  near  reaching  that  same  divis- 
ion of  castes  which  now  prevails  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges.  At  a  certain  period  in  the  history  of  the 
feudal  times,  we  find  the  population  of  Europe  divided 
into  the  four  very  distinct  orders  of  clergy,  nobility, 


MIXED    GOVERNMENTS.  125 

citizens,  and  serfs  —  classes  which  correspond  exactly 
enough  to  the  four  great  castes  of  the  Hindoos.  Had 
the  progress  of  modern  civilization  been  arrested  at 
that  point,  and  had  the  priesthood  become  hereditary, 
as  the  other  classes  already  were,  and  as  the  priest- 
hood is  in  most  theocracies,  and  would  have  become 
in  Europe  but  for  the  zeal  of  Gregory  VII.  to  enforce 
the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  Europe  might  have  become 
what  India  now  is.  Such  is  the  singular  connection 
of  events  that  the  ascetic  doctrine  of  the  meritori- 
ousness  of  virginity,  however  absurd  in  itself,  or  to 
whatever  evils  it  may  have  given  rise,  contributed, 
however,  in  an  important  degree,  to  the  progress  of 
modern  civilization. 

SECTION  SEVENTH. 

Development,  in  the  Feudal  Times^  of  the  Idea  of  a 
Mixed  Government. 

THE  struggles  for  power  and  dominion  which  took 
place,  during  the  feudal  times,  between  the  monarchs, 
the  clergy,  the  nobles,  and  the  burgesses,  and  especially 
the  compromises  which,  at  different  periods,  resulted 
from  those  struggles,  gave  a  further  and  still  more 
marked  development  to  that  idea  of  the  division  of 
power,  and  of  a  mixed  form  of  government,  of  which 
the  first  notable  historical  instance  had  occurred  in 
the  case  of  the  Roman  commonwealth.  Whenever 
the  power  of  these  different  orders,  or  of  any  two  or 
three  of  them,  pretty  nearly  balanced  each  other,  if 
any  act  was  to  be  done  which  required  the  concur- 
rence of  the  whole  authority  of  the  state,  such  as  the 
11* 


126  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

enactment  of  a  law  to  bind  all  classes,  all  these  vari- 
ous depositaries  of  power  must  be  made  to  act  to- 
gether. The  barbarian  conquerors  of  the  Roman 
empire  had  brought  with  them  the  custom  of  a  gen- 
eral assembly  of  the  whole  tribe  to  consult  upon 
affairs  of  general  interest,  including  the  decision  of 
controversies  —  a  custom  already  referred  to  as  pre- 
ceding the  establishment  of  any  regularly-organized 
government,  and  which,  in  states  forensically  gov- 
erned, is  often  maintained  even  after  the  government 
begins  to  take  on  a  clearly  monarchic  form.  These 
assemblies,  of  which  the  Champ  de  Mai  of  the  Franks 
and  the  Polish  Diet  may  serve  as  specimens,  consisted 
originally  of  all  the  warriors  of  the  conquering  clan, 
presided  over  by  the  chief  or  king.  But  the  general 
tendency  —  indeed,  the  dictate  of  convenience  —  was, 
gradually  to  limit  the  right  of  attendance  ;  only  the 
principal  nobles  appearing  personally,  the  inferior 
nobles  being  present  by  a  few  deputies.  These  as- 
semblies also  early  underwent  another  important  mod- 
ification —  a  consequence  of  the  conversion  of  the 
barbarians  to  Christianity  —  in  admitting  the  bishops 
and  abbots  to  participate  in  their  proceedings ;  and 
as  the  municipalities  grew  into  importance,  they,  too, 
were  finally  admitted  to  appear  by  their  deputies ; 
and  it  was  in  this  way  that  the  English  Parliament 
and  the  continental  States  General  were  gradually 
constituted.  But  the  thing  about  these  assemblies  in 
which  the  idea  of  a  mixed  government  was  most  fully 
developed  was,  that  each  order  —  the  nobility,  the 
clergy,  and  the  burgesses  —  had  to  yield  their  separate 
consent  to  give  validity  to  any  proceeding ;  or,  at 
least,  that  the  separate  assent  was  required  of  as 


MIXED    GOVERNMENTS.  127 

many  houses  as  the  assembly  was  divided  into,  which, 
from  a  variety  of  circumstances,  was  different  in  dif- 
ferent countries  ;  to  which  was  to  be  added  the  assent 
of  the  monarch  also. 

This,  indeed,  was  a  decided  improvement  upon  the 
Roman  usage  of  an  independent  legislative  power 
vested  in  two  assemblies  differently  constituted,  and 
in  which  different  classes  predominated,  whose  direct 
clashing  was  only  prevented  by  the  veto  power  of  the 
tribunes  of  the  people  —  a  method  liable  to,  and  in 
fact  attended  by,  great  practical  inconveniences  and 
abuses. 

SECTION  EIGHTH. 

Mutual  Relations   of  the   several  Orders  during-  the 
Feudal  Times. 

THE  pretensions  of  the  regular  clergy  to  unite  the 
whole  of  Christendom  in  one  grand  theocracy,  with 
Rome  at  its  head,  having  failed,  they  were  presently 
iced  to  join  with  the  nobles  in  a  struggle  against 
the  monarchs,  in  which,  from  taking  the  lead,  they 
now  came  to  play  but  a  subordinate  part.  The 
nobles,  though  most  arbitrary  lords  and  tyrants  within 
their  own  dominions,  and  violently  opposing  all  at- 
tempts to  restrain  or  diminish  their  authority  there, 
still  claimed,  in  virtue  of  this  very  opposition  to  any 
restraint  upon  themselves,  to  be  the  advocates  and 
supporters  of  liberty.  The  sort  of  liberty  which  they 
advocated  was,  however,  little  else  than  a  miserable 
mixture  of  anarchy  and  of  tyranny  on  a  small  Scale. 
Greatly,  indeed,  is  it  to  be  lamented  that  a  name  so 


128  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

cherished  should,  through  long  usage,  nave  become 
associated,  in  the  European  and  Americo-European 
mind,  with  notions  so  inconsistent  with  the  public 
welfare. 

The  monarchs,  on  the  other  hand,  while  struggling 
to  subdue  the  inordinate  power  of  the  nobles,  and 
of  the  titled  and  the  regular  clergy,  and  to  subject 
them  to  responsibility  and  control,  claimed,  and  with 
much  more  reason,  to  be  the  friends  of  equality  —  a 
thing  far  better  than  any  mere  anarchical  liberty  ; 
indeed,  the  only  kind  of  liberty  consistent  with  civil- 
ized life. 

And  so  the  citizens  who  composed  the  municipal- 
ities seem  to  have  thought,  since,  in  the  political 
struggles  of  the  feudal  age,  they  generally  sided  with 
the  monarchs,  as  finding  them  less  oppressive  than 
the  nobles,  and  less  inquisitorial  and  domineering 
than  the  clergy. 

The  municipalities,  indeed,  indirectly  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  monarchs  that  instrument  by  which  they 
achieved  their  ultimate  triumph,  as  well  over  the 
nobles  and  clergy  as  apparently  also  over  the  mu- 
nicipalities themselves.  It  was  the  free  cities*  of 
Europe  that  first,  in  modem  times,  employed  merce- 
nary troops  ;  and  it  was  the  growing  wealth,  of  which 
the  towns  were  the  centres  and  sources,  that  furnished 
the  princes  of  Europe  with  the  means  of  keeping  up 
mercenary  standing  armies.  Having  once  obtained 
that  instrument  of  power,  the  monarchs  were  able  to 
assume,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  position  of  conquerors, 
and  to  reduce  clergy,  nobles,  and  municipalities  to 
political  insignificance ;  uniting,  in  fact,  in  their  own 
persons,  in  the  power  they  assumed  of  levying  taxes 


MIXED    GOVERNMENTS.  129 

by  their  sole  authority,  of  conferring  ecclesiastical 
benefices,  and  of  appointing  the  magistrates  of  the 
municipalities,  all  the  power  that  had  formerly  been 
distributed  among  the  component  parts  of  the  assem- 
blies of  the  states  —  which  assemblies,  indeed,  at  this 
period,  ceased  in  many  countries  to  meet  at  all,  or 
when  they  did  meet,  were  converted  into  mere  in- 
struments of  the  monarch's  will. 


SECTION  NINTH. 

Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Political  Power  of  the  Legal 
Body. 

THE  administration  of  justice  is  one  of  the  principal 
functions  of  government.  In  the  ancient  republics, 
that  body  which  possessed  the  controlling  authority, 
whether  an  oligarchy,  an  aristocracy,  or  what  was 
called  a  democracy,  always  reserved  to  itself  the  right 
of  final  judicial  decision.  During  the  feudal  period, 
when  the  political  power  of  the  state  became  divided 
into  several  portions,  the  judicial  power  was  divided 
at  the  same  time,  among  the  same  parties.  The 
greater  nobles  claimed  the  right  of  final  judicial 
decision  within  their  own  domains.  The  clergy  had 
courts  of  their  own  for  the  trial  of  members  of  their 
own  order,  and  for  settling  questions  relating  to 
marriage  and  inheritance,  of  which  they  seized  upon 
the  jurisdiction  as  being  connected  with  births  and 
deaths,  and  having,  therefore,  something  mystic  about 
them.  The  municipalities  also  had  their  special  civic 
courts  for  settling  their  local  controversies. 


130  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

All  that  remained  to  the  kings  was  the  decision  of 
disputes  between  noble  and  noble,  nobles  and  mu- 
nicipalities, municipality  and  municipality,  and  so 
on ;  and  even  this  jurisdiction  was  disputed  —  these 
parties  claiming  the  right  to  make  private  war  on 
each  other.  But  this  ruinous  practice  #of  private  war, 
the  monarchs,  as  they  grew  stronger,  prohibited,  es- 
tablishing their  royal  courts  —  in  France  called  Parlia- 
ments —  for  the  settlement  of  these  disputes.  Similar 
courts  were  established  in  England  about  the  same 
time,  forming  the  basis  of  the  existing  system  of 
English  and  American  jurisprudence ;  their  jurisdic- 
tion and  forms  of  proceeding  being  fixed  during  the 
reign  of  Edward  I.  (A.  D.  1272-1307.) 

The  establishment  of  these  royal  courts  gradually 
raised  up  the  lawyers  to  be  a  separate  profession  —  a 
sort  of  corporate  body,  enjoying  a  high  degree  of  con- 
sideration, and  exercising  a  certain  portion  of  political 
power.  The  various  and  often  conflicting  rights  and 
privileges  claimed  by  the  kings,  nobles,  clergy,  and 
citizens,  resting  occasionally  upon  charters  or  special 
agreements,  between  the  kings  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  nobles,  monasteries,  and  cities  on  the  other,  but 
oftener  upon  mere  custom  and  tradition,  made  the 
law  excessively  cumbersome,  complicated,  and  un- 
certain. Mere  good  sense  and  a  spirit  of  justice  were 
wholly  inadequate  to  constitute  a  judge,  since,  in  ad- 
dition to  these  qualifications,  a  great  apparatus  of 
law  learning  became  necessary.  It  thus  happened 
that  the  body  of  the  lawyers,  from  whom,  of  necessity, 
the  judges  of  the  royal  courts  had  to  be  selected, 
came  to  be  regarded,  not  only  by  the  kings,  but  by 
the  nobles  and  municipalities  also,  as  the  depositary 


POLITICAL    POWER    OF    THE    LAWYERS.  131 

of  the  knowledge  of  their  rights,  and  by  virtue  of 
this  veneration,  and  as  the  guardians  of  those  rights, 
to  attain  to  a  certain  power  and  authority  in  the  state. 
The  universities  which  sprung  up  during  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  centuries,  whose  advice  and 
opinions  it  was  customary  to  ask  and  to  urge  upon 
clerico-politico-legal  questions,  were  merely  schools  for 
the  study  of  the  scholastic  divinity,  and  of  the  canon, 
feudal,  and  civil  law. 

The  royal  courts,  of  which  the  judges  were  ap- 
pointed and  removable  by  the  kings,  were,  from  the 
first,  sufficiently  favorable  to  the  extension  of  the 
royal  authority,  coincident,  for  a  time  at  least,  with 
the  extension  of  the  authority  of  the  lawyers  ;  and 
with  the  extension  also  of  peace,  security,  order, 
justice,  and  equality.  Thus,  in  England,  the  courts 
of  law,  by  their  decisions  respecting  the  effects  of  fines 
and  recoveries,  completely  defeated  the  attempts  of 
the  nobility  to  render  perpetual  the  entail  of  their 
estates ;  while  the  Court  of  Chancery,  by  its  doctrines 
about  trusts,  got  rid  of  a  vast  many  restrictions  on 
the  alienation  of  landed  property.  Even  the  great 
measure  of  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs,  accom- 
plished throughout  Western  Europe  during  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  centuries,  was  greatly  promoted 
by  the  zeal  of  the  lawyers,  who,  in  rescuing  the  rural 
population  from  the  oppressive  authority  of  their 
lords,  amplified,  at  the  same  time,  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  monarchs  and  of  the  royal  courts. 

As  Europe  gradually  advanced  in  civilization,  these 
royal  courts  assumed,  indeed,  the  high  authority  of 
modifying  ancient  customs  to  suit  new  circumstances, 
and  of  establishing,  on  the  basis  of  right  reason,  new 


132  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

rules  and  customs  where  no  old  ones  existed.  So  far 
as  regarded  the  mo'st  important  because  most  univer- 
sally operating  and  permanent  relations  of  society, 
those  of  the  individual  members  of  it  to  each  other,  — 
subjects  which,  in  those  times,  attracted  very  seldom, 
and  only  to  very  limited  extent,  the  attention  either 
of  the  monarchs  or  of  the  assemblies  of  the  states,  — 
the  courts  of  law  became  the  chief  legislators  of 
Europe ;  and  from  that  time  to  this,  under  pretence 
of  expounding  the  law,  —  which  is  assumed  to  be  a 
perfect  and  complete  code,  of  which  the  different 
provisions  are  produced  from  the  breasts  of  the  judges, 
its  sure  though  secret  depositaries,  as  occasion  arises, 
—  the  Supreme  Courts  of  Europe  and  of  the  European 
colonies  have  been  constantly  making  new  laws  ;  and 
in  so  doing  they  have  accomplished,  though  not  with- 
out much  admixture  of  evil  and  error,  a  great  work. 
This  legislation,  it  must  be  admitted,  abounds  with 
flagrant  defects,  arising  partly  from  the  scholastic 
subtilties  so  fashionable  in  the  feudal  times,  and  so 
natural  to  that  superficial  siate  of  knowledge  in 
which  words  are  mistaken  for  things  ;  partly  from  the 
necessity  the  legislators  were  under  of  building  upon 
a  narrow  and  insufficient  foundation  of  barbarous 
customs  ;  and  in  a  great  measure  also  from  the 
peculiar  nature  of  their  legislative  authority,  the 
existence  of  which  they  have  strenuously  repudiated 
and  denied,  even  in  the  very  act  of  exercising  it.  It 
has  been,  however,  on  the  whole,  far  better  legisla- 
tion than  could  have  been  obtained  from  any  other 
quarter ;  or  indeed  from  the  courts  and  lawyers  them- 
selves, had  they  not  fortunately  possessed  and  followed 
an  admirable  guide  in  the  Code  and  Pandects  of  Jus- 


POLITICAL    POWER    OF    THE    LAWYERS.  133 

tinian.  The  Roman  praetors,  it  is  curious  to  observe, 
had  found  themselves  obliged  to  legislate  for  the 
Roman  people,  in  the  very  way  in  which  the  business 
of  legislation  is  still  carried  on  by  the  English  and 
American  courts  —  that  is,  by  making  new  laws  under 
pretence  of  expounding  old  ones.  The  Pandects  are, 
in  fact,  but  a  compilation  or  abridgment  of  Roman 
reports  of  decisions,  and  of  the  opinions  of  eminent 
lawyers  during  a  series  of  several  centuries.  With 
all  its  defects  of  execution,  this  collection  contains  a 
vast  mass  of  legal  principles,  sifted  by  frequent  dis- 
cussions and  tested  by  a  long  experience.  The 
nobles  naturally  made  a  violent  resistance  to  a  sys- 
tem of  jurisprudence,  which,  as  it  favored  the  power 
of  the  prince,  and  placed  all  the  subjects  on  a  level 
of  equality,  was  hostile  to  their  pretensions.  Yet, 
either  openly  or  covertly,  that  system,  with  some 
slight  modifications  and  exceptions,  has  furnished, 
in  all  the  relations  of  life  and  commerce,  the  civil 
code  of  Christendom  —  a  result  arrived  at  hardly  less 
in  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies  than  in  the  case  of 
the  continental  states. 

Though  the  royal  courts,  and  the  body  of  lawyers 
attached  to  them,  were,  in  the  first  instance,  active 
and  efficient  aids  in  extending  the  royal  authority, 
yet  they  became,  in  process  of  time,  after  the  growing 
power  of  the  monarchs  had  humbled  the  clergy,  sub- 
jected the  nobles,  and  subdued  the  municipalities,  the 
only  remaining  barrier  against  absolute  power.  The 
nobles,  the  clergy,  and  the  citizens,  though  stripped 
of  their  political  authority,  were  still  acknowledged 
to  have  certain  rights,  guarantied  by  the  laws,  and 
-which  the  courts  and  the  lawyers  upheld.  In  France, 
12 


134  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

the  Parliament  of  Paris,  the  supreme  court  of  that 
kingdom,  went  still  further;  and  as  the  monarchs  had 
usurped  the  power  of  imposing  new  taxes  by  edicts 
of  their  own,  without  consulting  the  States  General, 
so  the  Parliament  of  Paris  strove  earnestly  to  convert 
the  custom  which  had  obtained  of  registering  these 
tax  edicts  on  its  records  into  a  right  of  protest,  and 
even  of  veto,  by  refusing  to  register  such  edicts  as 
were,  in  their  opinion,  unreasonable  or  unjust.  Even 
in  England,  —  and  the  same  is  true  in  America,  — 
though  the  courts  of  law  have  been  but  too  uniformly 
the  supple  instruments  of  power,  the  strenuous  and 
obstinate  defenders  of  all  existing  inequalities,  under 
the  respectable  name  of  vested  rights,  yet  there  have 
always  been  found  among  the  lawyers  many  of  the 
adroitest,  ablest,  and  most  formidable  opponents  of 
arbitrary  authority,  and  of  antiquated  abuses.  Nor 
have  those  champions  failed  to  derive  great  support 
to  the  cause  they  have  thus  espoused,  from  the  ac- 
cepted doctrine  of  the  lawyers,  that  law,  with  all  the 
respect  which  it  pays  to  precedent,  is,  after  all,  a  sys- 
tem of  right  reason  and  pure  justice,  of  which  the 
judges  are  only  the  expositors,  and  precedents  merely 
the  records — expositors  and  records  which  prove  them- 
selves in  error  whenever  they  are  found  irreconcilable 
with  reason  and  right. 

SECTION  TENTH. 

Distribution  of  the    Functions  of  Government.     Sub- 
divisions of  Authority. 

THE  division   of  political  power  into  several  por- 
tions necessarily  produces  a  distribution  of  the  func- 


SUBDIVISIONS    OF    AUTHORITY.  135 

tions  of  government.  Throughout  Europe,  during  the 
feudal  times,  the  power  of  declaring  war,  calling  out 
the  feudal  militia,  negotiating  with  foreign  states, 
and  carrying  the  laws  into  execution,  together  with 
a  certain  indefinite  right  of  promulgating  new -laws, 
was  vested  in  the  kings  ;  the  power  of  imposing 
taxes,  and,  by  that  means,  of  extorting  from  the  kings 
enactments  of  general  interest,  ripening,  in  certain 
countries,  into  a  full  power  of  legislation,  jointly  in 
the  kings  and  the  assemblies  of  the  states ;  while  the 
power  of  deciding  controversies,  and  incidentally, 
not  only  of  interpreting  the  laws,  but  of  making  new 
ones,  so  far  as  mere  domestic  and  mercantile  relations 
were  concerned,  (involving  often  in  the  result  great 
political  consequences,)  was  exercised  in  the  name  of 
the  kings  by  the  supreme  courts,  assisted  by  the 
lawyers.* 

It  was  this  practical  division  of  authority,  per- 
petuated to  our  times  under  the  British  constitution, 
and  imitated  in  those  of  America,  which  first  sug- 
gested to  modern  writers  on  politics  the  idea  of  de- 
composing the  functions  of  government  into  three 
elements,  the  executive,  the  legislative,  and  the 
judicial,  and  of  intrusting  each  of  these  functions  to 
separate  and  independent  hands.  Indeed,  it  has  come 
to  be  a  maxim  very  generally  received  among  modern 
political  writers,  and  which  recent  experience  has 

*  A  very  curious  topic  —  the  veto  upon  the  legislative  power  of  the 
kings,  exercised  in  England  by  juries,  according  to  their  original  con- 
stitution —  the  faint  shadow  of  which  still  keeps  up  the  reputation  of 
the  jury  as  the  "  palladium  of  English  liberty  "  —  and  the  gradual  loss 
of  this  right  through  the  usurpation  of  the  parliament  and  the  royal 
courts  —  has  been  handled  in  a  masterly  manner  in  Lysander  Spooner's 
recent  Essay  on  Trial  by  Jury. 


136  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

tended  to  reenforce,  that  the  liberties  of  a  people  can 
hardly  be  secure  where  these  different  functions  of 
government  are  consolidated  in  the  same  hands. 
From  the  same  source  has  also  been  derived  the 
related  idea  of  the  division  of  the  legislative  authority 
among  two  or  three  bodies,  acting  as  a  check  upon 
each  other,  and  whose  concurrence  is  required  in  all 
legislative  acts. 

It  is  no  doubt  both  possible  and  desirable,  and  in 
fact  essential  to  constitutional  freedom,  that  the 
several  administrative  functions  of  government  should 
be  exercised  by  different  agents ;  and  that  even  to  a 
considerably  greater  extent  than  has  ever  yet  taken 
place.  It  is  impossible,  however,  to  make  a  complete 
separation  between  these  functions,  since  they  run, 
imperceptibly,  into  each  other.  All  these  agents,  too, 
ought  to  be  mutually  dependent  upon  some  common 
superior,  by  whose  superintending  authority  their' 
action  shall  be  ultimately  harmonized ;  as,  otherwise, 
their  mutual  collisions  and  disputes  might  paralyze 
the  efficiency  of  the  government.  During  the  feudal 
ages,  this  latter  result  was  constantly  occurring ;  and  it 
was  felt  to  be  so  great  an  evil  as  ultimately  to  pro- 
duce, throughout  continental  Europe,  a  general  ac- 
quiescence in  the  extinguishment  of  political  liberty, 
by  the  concentration  of  all  authority  in  the  hands  of 
the  kings. 


DELEGATED    AND    REPRESENTATIVE    AUTHORITY.    137 

CHAPTER  VI. 
DELEGATED  AND  REPRESENTATIVE  AUTHORITY. 

SECTION  FIRST. 

« 

Delegation  of  Power  in  Monarchies. 

t 
THE  chieftain,  who,  in  process  of  time,  and  by  the 

increase  of  the  number  of  his  subjects,  finally  becomes 
what  we  call  a  king,  though  he  may,  on  important 
occasions,  assemble  the  warriors  and  elders  for  consul- 
tation, yet  usually  exercises  in  person  all  the  func- 
tions of  government  down  even  to  that  of  executioner. 
This,  however,  is  possible  only  so  long  as  he  remains 
the  chieftain  of  a  single  tribe,  camp,  or  village. 
When  his  authority  includes  several  tribes  or  villages, 
he  is  obliged  to  share  the  functions  of  government 
with  delegates,  who  act  in  his  name  and  behalf. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  this  may  be  done.  He 
may  either  appoint  persons  to  exercise  separate  and 
independent  functions,  according  to  the  method  above 
pointed  out,  —  this  man  to  be  a  judge,  that  man  to  be 
military  chief ;  this  man  to  be  collector  of  taxes,  and 
that  man  to  have  the  custody  of  the  revenue,  or  a 
portion  of  it,  —  or  he  may  depute  the  entire  powers 
of  government,  such  as  he  himself  possesses  them,  to 
be  exercised  within  a  certain  district  by  a  single  in- 
dividual. It  is  this  latter  and  ruder  method  that 
uniformly  prevails  in  monarchies  which  have  sprung 
directly  from  the  primitive  chieftaincy ;  the  late  in- 
dependent chief  of  each  successively  conquered  tribe 
12* 


138  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

•% 

—  or  some  one  of  his  family  —  being  frequently  con- 
tinued as  the  subordinate  ruler,  under  an  obligation 
to  pay  tribute,  and  to  render  military  aid  to  the  su- 
perior chief.     Wherever,  in  any  monarchy,  the  former 
method  prevails,  it  will  probably  be  found  to  be  only 
the   continuation,  or   the   copy,  of  some  republican 
usage.-   Hence   its   prevalence   in   those    monarchies 
distinguished  as  tyrannies,  and  secondary  monarchies 

—  that  is,  monarchies  founded  on  the  ruins  of  re- 
publics. 

SECTION  SECOND. 
Delegated  Authority  in  Republics.     Representation. 

IN  all  republics,  at  least  in  all  aristocracies  and 
democracies,  an  absolute  necessity  exists  for  intrust- 
ing the  administrative  functions  of  government  to 
delegated  agents.  It  is  impossible  for  any  large 
number  of  persons  to  participate  in  any  consul- 
tation to  which"  their  personal  presence  is  neces- 
sary. Any  assembly  which  consists  of  more  than  a 
few  hundreds  loses  the  power  of  deliberation,  and 
degenerates  into  a  mere  mob,  in  which  the  conception 
of  the  moment  becomes  contagious  and  omnipotent, 
and  every  thing  is  carried  by  the  noisiest  and  most 
violent.  But,  though  the  obvious  impossibility  of 
carrying  on  the  executive  functions  of  government, 
except  by  intrusting  them  to  the  separate  manage- 
ment of  one  or  a  few  individuals  specially  appointed 
for  that  purpose,  has  led,  in  all  republics,  to  the 
election  of  executive  magistrates,  the  ruling  body, 
whether  aristocracy  or  democracy,  has  always  shown 


DELEGATED    AND    REPRESENTATIVE    AUTHORITY.    139 

• 

great  reluctance  to  give  up  the  personal  exercise  of 
judicial  and  legislative  authority.  In  all  the  ancient 
republics  we  find  no  instance  of  an  elective  senate  or 
council  for  legislation.  Their  senates  seem  always  to 
have  consisted  of  the  wealthiest  members  of  the  com- 
munity, or  of  those  who,  by  reason  of  their  birth,  their 
priestly  offices,  their  greater  experience,  or  their  su- 
perior abilities,  were  able  to  exercise  a  power  not 
delegated,  but  original  in  themselves.  These  ancient 
senates  were,  in  fact,  instances,  not  so  much  of  the 
delegation  of  authority  as  of  the  aggregation  of  it  in 
certain  individuals,  through  the  influence  of  the  pri- 
mary or  secondary  elements  of  power. 

The  assemblies  of  the  delegates  of  the  allied  Greek 
cities  of  Asia  Minor,  and  of  those  which  belonged  to 
the  Achaean  League,  hardly  form  an  exception,  since 
those  assemblies  were  rather  congresses  of  ambas- 
sadors than  proper  legislative  bodies. 

In  those  ancient  republics,  in  which  prevailed  that 
form  of  government  called  by  the  Greeks  a  democracy, 
the  highest  acts  of  power,  the  enactment  of  laws, 
and  the  decision  of  the  most  important  controver- 
sies, were  reserved  for  the  general  assemblies  of  the 
citizens  —  assemblies,  for  the  reasons  above  stated, 
not  very  competent  to  the  judicious  and  deliberate 
exercise  of  any  such  functions.  In  fact,  they  were 
perpetually  guilty  of  acts  of  precipitate  folly  and  in- 
justice, such  as  brought  that  form  of  government  into 
very  bad  esteem  with  all  the  more  considerate  of  the 
Greek  historians  and  philosophers. 

The  Romans  made  one  important  step  towards 
overcoming  the  physical  difficulty  of  permitting  large 


140*  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

numbers  to  participate  in  legislative  and  judicial  acts, 
by  dividing  their  assemblies  into  distinct  bodies,  cen- 
turies, or  tribes,  each  of  which  met  and  voted  by 
itself.  But  in  the  later  days  of  the  republic,  when 
the  number  of  those  entitled  to  the  right  of  citizen- 
ship was  greatly  increased  by  the  admission  of  all  the 
Italian  cities  to  that  privilege,  this  contrivance  no 
longer  answered  any  good  purpose,  and  the  assemblies 
of  the  people  became  perpetual  scenes  of  confusion, 
uproar,  and  violence.  The  simultaneous  meeting,  in 
the  forum,  of  all  the  tribes  and  all  the  centuries,  was, 
indeed,  a  great  drawback  upon  the  efficacy  of  this 
Roman  method. 

As  we  are  indebted  to  the  municipalities  of  the 
middle  ages  for  the  first  idea  of  a  democratical 
equality  extending  to  all  the  community,  so  it  seems 
to  have  been  in  those  municipalities  that  the  appli- 
cation was  first  made  of  the  only  effectual  means 
whereby  the  mass  of  a  community  can  be  enabled  to 
exercise  political  power  without  tumult  or  violence ; 
namely,  the  delegation,  not  only  of  the  executive,  but 
also  of  the  legislative  and  judicial  functions  of  gov- 
ernment, to  certain  agents  specially  elected  at  stated 
periods  for  those  purposes,  and  responsible  to  those 
who  elect  them  for  the  proper  discharge  of  their 
several  duties.  But,  though  the  practice  of  legislation 
through  the  medium  of  representatives  seems  first  to 
have  been  introduced  in  the  local  municipal  govern- 
ments, that  idea  presently  received  a  more  extended 
application  in  the  constitution  of  the  assemblies  of 
states  in  the  middle  ages,  in  which,  though  the 
greater  nobles  and  clergy  sat  in  person,  the  inferior 


DELEGATED    AND    REPRESENTATIVE    AUTHORITY.    141 

nobles  and  clergy,  not  less  than  the  municipalities, 
appeared  by  their  elected  delegates.  So  far  as  relates 
to  the  decision  of  minor  controversies,  the  same  idea 
had  been  earlier  carried  out  in  the  Greek  and  Roman 
republics,  and  among  the  Saxons  and  other  German 
tribes,  in  the  selection  by  lot  or  otherwise  of  a  certain 
select  number  to  act  as  judges  or  jurors,  (originally 
the  same  thing,)  instead  of  the  general  assembly  of 
the  city  or  canton. 

But  it  is  in  the  United  States  of  America  that  the 
principle  of  representative  government  has  been  most 
extensively  and  successfully  applied.  The  town  as- 
semblies of  New  England,  including  all  the  legal 
voters,  exercise,  indeed,  a  certain  limited  power  of 
taxation  and  legislation ;  but,  with  this  exception,  the 
entire  functions  of  government,  as  well  for  the  munici- 
pal districts  as  for  the  states  and  the  Union,  are  vested 
in  certain  officers  and  bodies,  elected  (except  a  part 
of  the  judicial  officers)  for  short  terms,  and,  what/\ 
perhaps,  tends  still  more  to  the  prevention  of  abuses,  \ 
for  very  limited  ranges  of  authority ;  so  that  any  of 
these  bodies  or  officers,  attempting  to  stretch  their 
jurisdiction,  soon  find  themselves  in  conflict  with  their 
cooperates  in  the  government,  who  thus  act  as  im- 
portant checks  upon  and  supervisors  over  each  other. 


142  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PROCESS  BY  WHICH  DEMOCRACIES  ARE  TRANS- 
FORMED INTO  ARISTOCRACIES,  OLIGARCHIES,  TYR- 
ANNIES, AND  SECONDARY  MONARCHIES. 

ALTHOUGH  the  municipal  spirit  and  democratical 
ideas  have,  in  our  time,  become  very  much  diffused, 
forming  the  basis,  indeed,  of  all  the  popular  move- 
ments now,  and  for  three  quarters  of  a  century  past, 
going  on  throughout  Christendom,  it  nevertheless  has 
happened  that  almost  all  of  those  feudal  age  munici- 
palities in  which  that  spirit  and  those  ideas  had  their 

x  origin  long  since  lost  all  tinge  of  democracy  in  their 
own  interior  administration ;  it  being  entirely  super- 
seded there  by  oligarchy  or  tyranny.  The  process 
by  which  this  remarkable  result  has  been  reached 
constitutes  an  important  topic  of  inquiry. 

When  we  compare  the  original  tribe  or  clan,  at  the 
moment  of  the  first  appearance  in  it  of  an  organized 

•  government,  with  the  original  condition  of  the  demo- 
cratic municipality,  we  perceive  some  close  resem- 
blances and  some  obvious  differences.  In  both  there 
exists  a  very  great  equality  among  the  members, 
especially  as  to  wealth,  and  in  both  the  authority 
exerted  by  the  government  is  very  limited.  These  are 
the  resemblances ;  and  the  differences  are  not  less 
striking.  In  the  original  clan,  the  government,  as  it 
gradually  takes  on  an  organized  form,  assumes  also  a 
monarchical  character.  He  who  possesses  the  great- 
»  est  influence  over  the  determinations  of  the  tribe,  as 
that  influence  increases,  takes  more  and  more  upon 


TRANSFORMATIONS    OF    DEMOCRACIES.  143 

himself  the  office  of  deciding  public  matters  and  pri- 
vate controversies,  without  thinking  it  necessary  to 
ask  counsel  or  advice  of  the  assembled  community,  or 
of  the  elders.  Power  is  thus  gradually  aggregated 

/  and  centralized,  till  the  control  passes  from  the  major- 
ity, the  original  depositary  of  it,  into  the  hands  of 
one  man  —  the  chief  or  king.  We  have  seen  how 
the  introduction  of  domestic  slavery,  by  which  the 
practice  of  tyranny  is  familiarized,  tends  to  give  new 
vigor  to  the  authority  of  the  chief ;  and  how  the  same 
result  is  still  further  promoted  by  the  increased  accu- 
mulation of  wealth,  a  great  amount  of  which  always 
tends  to  concentrate  in  the  chief's  hands.  This  mo- 
narchical government,  on  the  failure  of  the  royal  fam- 
ily, is  apt  to  change,  as  we  have  seen,  to  an  oligarchy, 

s^.  thence  to  an  aristocracy,  thence  to  that  extended  kind 
of  aristocracy  which  the  Greeks  called  a  democracy, 
from  either  of  these  forms  to  a  tyranny,  and  from 
tyranny  back  to  oligarchy  or  aristocracy,  and  so  on ; 

^alternating  between  tyranny,  oligarchy,  and  aristoc- 
racy, with  perhaps  an  occasional,  but  generally  very 
short,  restoration  of  the  democratic  form,  till  the  state 
falls  a  prey  to  some  conquering  neighbor.  Chattel 
slavery,  so  long  as  that  root  of  political  inequality 
continues  to  exist,  seems  to  make  it  impossible  for  a 
community  to  escape  out  of  this  charmed  circle,  or  to^ 
take  on  the  true  democratic  character. 

In  the  municipal  democracy,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
government,  from  its  very  commencement,  assumes 
a  representative  form,  and  the  legal  equality  of  the 
citizens  is  long  preserved.  Those  who  desire  author- 
ity are  obliged  to  exercise  it  through  the  medium  of  a 
personal  influence,  based  on  the  primary  and  second- 


144  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

ary  elements  of  power,  over  the  opinions  and  votes 
of  their  fellow-citizens.  The  institution  of  chattel 
slavery  not  existing,  the  idea  of  arbitrary  and  cruel 
exertions  of  power  is  abhorrent,  and  always  remains 
so,  to  the  feelings  of  the  community.  Only  by  slow 
degrees,  in  such  a  state,  is  despotic  authority  able  to 
establish  itself.  The  government,  in  a  way  we  shall 
presently  point  out,  changes  gradually  and  almost 
imperceptibly  into  an  aristocracy,  which  becomes,  per- 
haps, an  oligarchy.  To  this  a  tyiamojLfinally  suc- 
ceeds, which,  though  often  harsh  and  cruel  towards 
the  aristocracy  ^  is  generally,  at  least  upon  its  .first 
establishment,  mild  and  favorable  towards  the  mass. 
Frequently,  indeed,  the  multitude,  sick  of  aristocratic 
insolence,  lend  their  aid  to  the  change,  rejoicing  in 
the  humiliation  and  subjection  of  those  by  whom 
they  have  been  themselves  humiliated  and  subjected. 
When  a  monarchy  has  thus  become  established  over 
what  was  once  a  municipal  democracy,  another  cycle 
of  changes  begins.  The  monarchy,  on  failure  of  the 
royal  family,  or  by  revolutionary  violence,  —  for  the 
Recollections  of  republicanism  long  survive,  —  may 
'  change  again  to  an  oligarchy,  or  to  an  aristocracy, 
which,  by  continually  expanding  itself,  may  end,  at 
length,  in  a  new  democracy.  Or  this  process  may  go 
on  pending  the  existence  of  the  monarchy ;  the  king 
being  gradually  stripped  of  his  power,  which  passes 
into  the  hands  of  a  number  of  his  nominal  subjects  ; 
and  this  number  may  go  on  increasing  till  the  govern- 
ment becomes  again  an  actual  democracy.  The  non- 
existence  of  chattel  slavery  in  such  a  community  — 
except,  indeed,  its  place  be  supplied  by  the  spirit  of 
caste,  (the  influence,  that  is,  of  traditional  respect,)  or 


TRANSFORMATIONS    OF    DEMOCRACIES.  145 

by  mystical  ideas  —  produces,  in  fact,  a  constant  ten- 
dency in  that  direction. 

In  the  original  clan,  the  possession  of  power  leads 
to  accumulation  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
possess  power ;  which  accumulation  of  wealth  reacts 
to  produce  an  increase  of  power.  In  the  municipal 
democracy,  the  accumulation  of  wealth  leads  to  the 
possession  of  power  ;  which  possession  of  power  is 
employed  as  a  means  of  accumulating  wealth.  But 
this  is  a  process  which  does  not  go  on  long,  nor  far ; 
for  the  aristocracy  or  the  tyrant  under  whose  control 
the  community  thus  falls,  like  the  greedy  woman  in 
the  fable  over-eager  to  increase  her  stores,  soon  kills, 
by  impolitic  exactions,  the  goose  that  lays  the  golden 
egg ;  the  whole  community,  governors  as  well  as  gov- 
erned, gradually,  under  the  influence  of  bad  govern- 
ment, sinking  to  poverty. 

The  accumulation  of  wealth,  in  the  original  clan, 
takes  place,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  introduction  of 
chattel  slavery,  —  the  case  of  some  theocratic  govern- 
ments, perhaps,  excepted,  in  which  the  influence  of 
mystical  ideas  is  made  to  stand  in  the  place  of  it, — 
and  by  plunder  and  conquest,  to  which,  indeed,  slavery 
owes  its  origin.  In  the  municipal  democracy,  the 
accumulation  of  wealth  takes  place,  at  least  in  the 
first  instance,  by  industrious  occupations ;  and,  as 
these  occupations  are  equally  open  to  all,  somewhat 
of  the  original  equality  of  wealth  is  long  preserved. 
But  commerce  —  especially  that  commerce  which  is 
not  confined  to  regular  channels,  but  which  has  the 
character  of  speculation  and  adventure — tends  to  pro- 
duce marked  inequality  of  wealth ;  and  this  wealth, 
i-rvrd  '-ind  transmitted  in  certain  families,  gives 
13 


146  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

to  those  families  a  preponderating  influence  in  the 
community.  It  results  from  this  influence  that  the 
members  of  the  legislative  council  and  the  principal 
executive  officers  are  generally  selected  from  among  a 
limited  number  of  wealthy  families,  who  soon  come 
to  consider  themselves,  in  consequence,  as  having  a 
sort  of  right  of  property  in  the  government,  and  to 
form  plans  for  securing  the  whole  political  power. 

The  first  step  in  this  career  commonly  is,  to  dimin- 
ish  the  frequency  of  elections ;  to  which,  as  the  same 
persons  are  constantly  reelected,  the  voters  are  the 
more  readily  induced  to  consent,  Thus  the  members 
of  the  legislative  body,  and  perhaps  the  principal 
executive  officers,  from  being  annually  elected,  are 
first  chosen  for  a  long  term  of  years,  and  then  for  life. 
Next,  advantage  is  taken  of  some  tumult  or  riot  — 
and  the  seldomer  public  assemblies  are  held,  the  more 
tumultuous  they  are  apt  to  be  —  to  abolish  popular 

(elections  altogether,  as  inconsistent  with  the  public 
peace.  The  council  assumes  the  office  of  filling  up 
vacancies  in  its  own  body,  and  the  election,  also,  of 
all  the  magistrates ;  and  the  late  municipal  democracy 
is  thus  converted  into  what  is  called  a  close  corpora- 
tion. As  power  thus  concentrates  in  a  few  hands, 
those  who  possess  it  make  use  of  it  to  secure  to  them- 
selves a  monopoly  of  the  more  profitable  branches  of 
trade.  It  is,  indeed,  to  the  great  disjunction  of  inter- 
ests produced  among  the  citizens  of  the  middle  age 
municipalities  by  the  spirit  of  monopoly,  and  the 

.  grasping  at  exclusive  privileges  by  different  guilds, 
companies,  and  associations,  in  direct  violation  of 
that  idea  of  equality  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the 
municipal  democracy,  that  we  must  ascribe  a  great 


TRANSFORMATIONS    OF    DEMOCRACIES.  147 

influence  in  the  conversion  of  those  governments  into 
aristocracies  and  oligarchies. 

From  a  close  corporation,  possessing  the  right  of 
filling  all  vacancies  in  its  own  body,  it  is  an  easy  and 
customary  transition  to  an  hereditary  council  or  sen- 
ate. Thus  we  see  erected,  upon  the  ruins  of  demo- 
cratical  equality,  a  civic  nobility  in  favor  of  which  the 
idea  of  property  in  power  and  traditionary  respect 
presently  begin  to  operate.  If  the  municipality,  as  fre- 
quently happens,  becomes  engaged  in  wars,  and  makes 
"conquests  which  it  does  not  incorporate  into  itself, 
but  governs  as  subject  provinces,  the  concentration  of 
wealth  and  power  in  a  few  hands  proceeds  at  a  much 
more  rapid  rate.  Those  who  have  the  administration 
of  these  subject  provinces  always  employ  the  arbi- 
trary power  intrusted  to  them  as  a  means  of  accumu- 
lating wealth  ;  while  the  troops  which  the  municipal- 
ity is  obliged  to  maintain  therein  are  always  highly 
dangerous  to  its  own  liberties. 

When  a  single  family,  by  reason  of  its  superior 
wealth  added  to  superior  talent,  became  able  to  overtop 
all  the  rest,  the  civic  aristocracy,  by  which  the  original  . 
municipal  democracy  had  been  superseded,  is  itself 
superseded  by  a  tyranny,  established,  and,  in  many 
peases,  sustained,  by  the  basest  arts  and  the  most  de- 
testable cruelties  towards  the  late  ruling  aristocracy ; 
but,  in  general,  if  it  does  not  alleviate,  certainly  not 
aggravating  the  yoke  of  the  already  subject  mass. 

The  revolutions  of  the  Italian  republics,  especially 
of  Venice,  Genoa,  Milan,  and  Florence ;  of  the  Flem- 
ish and  German  free  cities ;  of  the  Swiss  cantons ; 
and  of  the  united  Dutch  provinces,  —  will  serve  abun- 
dantly to  verify  all  these  observations. 


148  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  PATRICIAN  AND   CIVIC 
ARISTOCRACIES. 

SECTION  FIRST. 
Comparison  of  Civic  and  Patrician  Aristocracies. 

THERE  is  one  important  particular  in  which  the* 
aristocracies  which  spring  up  in,  and  succeed  to, 
municipal  democracies,  and  which,  for  the  sake  of 
distinction,  we  have  called  Civic  Aristocracies,  differ 
from  the  aristocracies  which  succeed  to  the  organized 
monarchy  —  a  difference  which  gives  to  civic  aris- 
tocracies a  power  much  more  firm  and  lasting.  Both 
admit  the  hereditary  principle  ;  but  aristocracies  of  the 
latter  kind,  which  may  be  distinguished  as  Patrician, 
since  they  rest,  in  a  great  measure,  upon  certain  tra- 
ditional genealogical  considerations,  form,  as  it  were, 
a  separate  caste,  to  which  the  idea  of  intermarriage 
with  the  plebeian  vulgar  is  utterly  abhorrent,  as 
tending  to  destroy  that  real  or  supposed  peculiarity 
of  blood  to  which  the  patrician  order  owes  a  large 
part  of  its  consideration  and  influence.  The  civic  or 
plebeian  aristocracy,  on  the  other  hand,  owes  its  in- 
fluence mainly  to  its  wealth,  which  it  is  ready  at  all 
times  to  recruit,  not  only  by  intermarriages  with  rich 
heiresses  of  the  vulgar  sort,  but  also  by  admitting 
into  its  ranks  all  the  more  wealthy  and  able  of  the 
vulgar  order,  whom  it  thus  converts  from  its  most 
dangerous  enemies  into  its  warmest  and  most  devoted 
supporters. 


PATRICIAN    ARISTOCRACIES.  149 

But,  notwithstanding  this  difference  in  their  origin 
and  character,  it  not  unfrequently  happens  that  a 
patrician  is  gradually  transformed,  or  rather  absorbed, 
into  a  civic  aristocracy  —  a  transformation  which  oc- 
curred in  many  of  the  Italian  republics  of  the  middle 
ages,  and  in  some  of  the  Swiss  cantons  ;  the  old 
nobility  residing  in  the  rural  districts  attached  to  the 
towns  being  induced  or  compelled  to  accept  the  right 
of  citizenship,  and  to  mingle  in  one  body  wJth  the 
citizens.  And  this  same  process  is  now  going  on,  if 
indeed  it  may  not  be  said  to  be  already  completed, 
in  England;  though  in  that  country  a  curious  jumble 
still  exists  of  patrician  and  civic  ideas. 

It  is  no  doubt  true  that  the  unequal  distribution  of 
wealth  has  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  production  . 
of  patrician  as  well  as  of  civic  aristocracies.  But  the 
wealth  of  patrician  aristocracies  has  been  mainly 
founded  upon  conquest,  plunder,  and  the  possession 
of  chattel  slaves  or  serfs ;  while  their  power  has  been 
mainly  sustained  by  their  superior  personal  skill  in  the 
use  of  arms,  which  they  have  seldom  intrusted  to  the 
hands  of  the  subject  class.  Such  aristocracies  have 
always  despised  all  industrious  occupations  ;  they 
have  regarded  the  terms  base  and  mechanical  as 
synonymous ;  and  have  looked  upon  trade,  and  still 
more  upon  all  handicraft  arts,  as  mean  and  degrading. 
Such  were  the  sentiments  of  the  Dorian  Greeks,  of 
the  Romans,  and  of  all  the  feudal  aristocracies  of 
Europe.  They  considered  war  and  plunder  the  only 
occupations  fit  for  gentlemen,  and  regarded  any  in- 
termixture or  amalgamation  with  the  laborious  class, 
whether  by  marriage  or  participation  of  rights,  as  a 
thing  not  to  be  thought  of.  Like  the  American  slave- 
13* 


150  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

holders  of  the  present  day,  though  they  selected  their 
mistresses  from  among  the  most  comely  of  the  wives 
and  daughters  of  the  inferior  order,  to  have  taken 
women  of  that  order  as  their  wives  would  have  been 
regarded  as  an  intolerable  degradation.  The  story  of 
Rousseau's  Nouvelle  Heloise,  and  indeed  of  a  vast 
many  of  the  novels  and  plays  of  modern  Europe,  turns 
upon  this  bar  of  separation  between  the  patrician  and 
civic  orders. 

Civic  aristocracies,  on  the  other  hand,  having  ac- 
cumulated their  wealth  by  commerce,  and  by  in- 
dustrious occupations,  still  continue  to  hold  those 
occupations  in  a  certain  patronizing  esteem ;  to  afford 
protection  and  countenance  to  them ;  and,  as  has  been 
already  remarked,  not  merely  to  admit  but  to  welcome 
into  their  order  all  of  the  lower  ranks  who  amass 
wealth,  or  rise  to  high  positions,  civil  or  military. 
These  civic  aristocracies  make,  indeed,  a  certain 
approach  to  democracy  in  the  circumstance  that, 
although  they  do  not  admit  equality  of  political 
rights,  they  yet  allow  to  the  excluded  a  chance  or  ex- 
pectation of  obtaining  a  share  of  those  rights.  In 
fact,  these  civic  aristocracies  are  capable,  by  a  gradual 
extension  of  the  circuit  of  the  privileged  order  till  it 
finally  admits  the  whole  community,  of  passing  into 
democracies  by  almost  insensible  degrees.  Yet  they 
also  may,  and  often  do,  proceed  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion ;  and  by  multiplying  the  obstacles  to  admission 
into  their  ranks,  change,  by  degrees,  into  patrician 
aristocracies. 


CIVIC    ARISTOCRACIES.  151 


SECTION  SECOND. 

Wealth  as  an  Element  of  Power.     Moneyed  Form  of 
Social  Slavery* 

IT  appears,  from  these  considerations,  that  wealth 
may  justly  be  regarded,  not  indeed  as  the  sole,  but 
still  as  altogether  the  most  important,  element  of 
political  power,  able  to  purchase  up  the  services  of 
strength,  skill,  sagacity,  force  of  will,  activity,  courage, 
knowledge,  eloquence,  and,  to  a  certain  extent  also, 
the  cooperation  of  the  influence  of  virtue,  of  mysti- 
cal ideas,  of  hereditary  respect,  and  of  the  idea  of 
property  in  power.  In  addition  to  this  aggregation 
of  influences,  wealth  affords  also  great  facilities  for 
combination,  which  easily  takes  place  among  a 
few  rich,  whom  the  smallness  of  their  number  and 
their  freedom  from  the  engrossing  necessity  of  pro- 
viding daily  bread  for  themselves  and  their  families 
enable  to  act  together  with  energy  and  effect.  / 

Even  after  the  members  of  a  civic  aristocracy  have 
grown  too  delicate  and  refined  any  longer  to  bear 
arms  themselves,  employing  their  whole  lives  in  one 
ceaseless  round  of  dissipations  and  amusements,  their 
wealth  still  enables  them  to  hire,  from  among  that 
large  portion  of  the  community  whom  their  policy 
keeps  ignorant  as  well  as  poor,  and  whom  ignorance 
and  poverty  have  made  abandoned  and  ferocious,  a 
standing  army  of  mercenary  soldiers,  mere  machines 
in  the  hands  of  a  body  of  officers,  themselves  selected 
from  among  the  offshoots  of  the  aristocracy,  and  them- 
selves also  dependent  on  their  pay  for  their  bread ; 


THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 


a  certain  portion  of  the  depressed  multitude  being 
thus  fed  and  trained  for  the  express  purpose  of  shoot- 
ing down,  under  aristocratic  guidance,  any  of  their 
own  class  who  may  attempt,  by  force,  to  resist  or  to 
throw  off  the  oppressions  of  the  rich. 

The  gift  of  public  employments,  and  still  more  the 
control  which  the  rich  possess  over  all  private  lucrative 
employments,  and  the  temptation  thus  held  out  to  all 
the  active  and  ambitious  poor  of  obtaining,  by  the 
accumulation  of  wealth,  admission  for  themselves  into 
the  privileged  order  —  these  means  enable  the  few  ricli 
to  seduce  and  buy  up  the  greater  portion  of  those 
among  the  mass  who  exhibit  signs  of  superior  energy 
and  talent  ;  so  that  the  mass,  for  the  most  part,  ;uv 
left  without  leaders,  or  are  constrained  to  take  as  such 
certain  outcasts  and  renegades  from  the  aristocracy, 
whom  extravagance  or  utter  profligacy  has  ruined, 
and  who,  as  a  last  resort,  take  up  the  trade  of  patriots 
and  demagogues.  The  notoriously  bad  character  of 
these  men,  and  the  regular  custom,  which  establishes 
itself  among  poor  men  of  talents,  of  setting  themselves 
up  as  leaders  of  the  mass  and  vindicators  of  popular 
rights,  in  order  to  make  a  show  of  their  abilities,  and 
so  to  compel  the  rich  to  bid  a  high  price  for  them 
—  these  things  throw  a  shade  of  suspicion  over  the 
motives  of  all  who  exhibit  a  disposition  to  favor  the 
'rights  of  the  people  ;  while  the^  leaders  of  the  aristoc- 
racy, not  seeming  to  contend  so  much  for  their  own 
individual  benefit  as  for  that  of  a  large  body  of  men, 
their  own  order,  are  able  not  only  to  escape  all  sus- 
picion of  self-seeking  hypocrisy,  but  even  to  set  up  a 
claim  to  disinterestedness  and  magnanimous  public 
Bpirit. 


CIVIC    ARISTOCRACIES.  153 

The  establishment  of  a  state  clergy,  who  receive 
stipends  from  the  public  revenue,  or  who  are  sustained 
by  the  government  in  the  possession  of  certain  lands, 
tithes,  and  other  prpperty,  and  still  more  the  intro- 
duction of  that  "voluntary  system,"  as  it  is  called, 
which  makes  the  clergy  directly  dependent  for  a 
livelihood  on  the  mere  benevolence  of  the  rich,  bring 
the  influence  of  mystical  ideas  to  the  support  of  the 
aristocracy  of  wealth.  Religious  establishments  are 
generally  the  remains  of  an  independent,  and  what, 
perhaps,  was  once  a  controlling  mystical  aristocracy, 
but  which,  by  the  decline  in  the  influence  of  mystical 
ideas,  has  lost  the  greater  portion  of  its  power,  and 
has  fallen  into  dependence  upon  the  aristocracy  of 
wealth,  from  which  it  borrows  support,  at  the  same 
time  that  it  lends  it.  Thus,  in  Scotland,  for  instance, 
the  established  Presbyterian  clergy,  once  a  substantive 
power  in  the  state,  and  but  recently  defeated  in  a  new 
attempt  to  become  so  again,  is  kept  up  and  paid  by 
a  few  rich  landholders,  for  the  purpose  of  preaching 
contentment,  submission,  and  obedience  to  the  im- 
poverished mass,  and  consoling  them  with  promises 
of  future  happiness  and  glory  for  present  pains,  pri- 
vations, and  oppressions. 

Paley,  in  the  first  part  of  the  third  book  of  his 
Principles  of  Moral  and  Political  Philosophy,  in  the 
chapter  entitled  Of  Property,  describes,  in  the  fol- 
lowing graphic  manner,  the  existing  social  state  of 
Europe  :  "  If  you  should  see  a  flock  of  pigeons  in  a 
field  of  corn,  and  if,  instead  of  each  picking  where  and 
what  it  liked,  (taking  just  as  much  as  it  wanted  and  no 
more,)  you  should  see  ninety-nine  of  them  gathering 
all  they  got  into  a  heap ;  reserving  nothing  for  them- 


154  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

selves  but  the  chaff  and  the  refuse ;  keeping  this  heap 
for  one,  and  that  the  weakest,  perhaps  worst,  pigeon 
of  the  flock ;  sitting  round  and  looking  on  all  the 
winter,  while  this  one  was  devouring,  throwing  about, 
and  wasting  it;  and  if  a  pigeon,  more  hardy  and 
hungry  than  the  rest,  touched  a  grain  of  the  hoard, 
all  the  others  instantly  flying  upon  it  and  tearing  it 
to  pieces ;  if  you  should  see  this,  you  would  see  noth- 
ing more  than  what  is  every  day  practised  and  estab- 
lished among  men.  Among  men  you  see  the  ninety 
and  nine  toiling  and  scraping  together  a  heap  of 
superfluities  for  one,  (and  this  one,  too,  oftentimes 
the  feeblest  and  worst  of  the  whole  set,  a  child,  a 
woman,  a  madman,  or  a  fool ;)  getting  nothing  for 
themselves  all  the  while  but  a  little  of  the  coarsest  of 
the  provision  which  their  own  industry  produces ; 
looking  quietly  on  while  they  see  the  fruits  of  all 
their  labor  spent  or  spoiled ;  and  if  one  of  the  number 
take  or  touch  a  portion  of  the  hoard,  the  others  join- 
ing against  him  and  hanging  him  for  the  theft." 

Were  the  above  a  quotation  from  Louis  Blanc  or 
Pierre  Leroux,  it  would,  no  doubt,  be  set  down  as 
rank  socialism.  In  fact,  it  is  but  a  paraphrastic 
anticipation  of  that  celebrated  dogma  of  Proudhon  — 
Property  is  theft.  But,  however  faulty  in  theory, 
it  is  correct  enough  as  a  picture  ;  nor  can  the  ninety- 
nine  plucked  pigeons  be  expected  to  detect  a  fallacy 
accepted  for  truth  and  science,  not  by  Archdeacon 
Paley  alone,  but  by  almost  the  entire  school  of 
modern  political  economists. 

Continual  exposure  to  pains,  especially  to  such  as 
are  truly  or  falsely  ascribed  to  human  contrivance  or 
agency,  has  a  natural  and  necessary  effect  at  once  to 


CIVIC    ARISTOCRACIES.  155 

diminish  the  susceptibility  to  the  sentiment  of  "benevo- 
lence, and  to  call  into  action  the  sentiment  of  malevo- 
lence. What  cause  then  for  wonder  if  the  mass  of 
the  people,  trodden  down  and  ridden  over  by  a  proud 
and  splendid  aristocracy,  the  privations  of  want,  and 
the  hardships  of  labor,  made  vastly  more  painful  by 
the  spectacle  constantly  before  them  of  overflowing 
wealth,  abundant  leisure,  and  the  most  profuse  lux- 
ury —  what  wonder,  if,  under  this  discipline,  the  mass 
of  the  poor  are  filled  with  bitter  hatred  of  their  rich 
rulers,  become  greatly  demoralized,  lose  all  respect  for 
the  rights  of  property,  of  which  they  themselves  have 
so  little  enjoyment,  and  are  only  kept  under  by  the 
severest  laws  and  a  constant  display  of  military  power  ? 

The  demoralizing  effects  of  chattel  slavery,  whether 
domestic  or  predial,  are  very  generally  admitted.  Yet 
it  may  be  considered  a  doubtful  question  if  the  moral 
results  that  follow  from  that  sort  of  servitude,  whether 
as  respects  the  masters  or  the  slaves,  are  at  all  more  \ 
disastrous  than  the  results  of  this  new  moneyed  form  ! 
of  Social  Slavery,  so  much  more  aggravating  than  the 
earlier  mystical  form  of  it,  by  which  the  great  mass 
of  the  people,  throughout  a  large  part  of  Europe,  are 
subjected  to  the  severest  and  most  hopeless  labors 
seemingly  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  a  wealthy  few. 

So  solid,  however,  is  the  basis  upon  which  the 
power  of  civic  aristocracies  rests  that  there,  would  be 
little  hope  for  the  mass  of  the  people  did  it  not  fortu- 
nately happen  that  such  aristocracies  become,  from  a 
variety  of  causes,  almost  always  divided  into  two  or 
more  factions,  which  struggle  with  each  other  for  the 
control  of  the  state.  It  is  usual  for  the  defeated  fac- 
tion to  attempt  to  strengthen  itself  by  professing  great 


lOO  THEORY    OF    POLITICS, 

zeal  fof  the  mass  of  the  people ;  nor  does  it  hesitate 
to  purchase  favor  and  support  by  promises  of  social 
reforms,  and  of  the  extension  of  political  rights,  too 
frequently  forgotten  when,  by  these  and  other  means, 
the  control  of  affairs  has  been  finally  obtained."  Yet 
out  of  these  struggles  some  extension  of  political 
rights  inevitably  results.  The  mass  of  the  people, 
at  least,  acquire  a  participation  in  that  liberty  of  as- 
semblage, of  speech,  and  of  the  press,  —  among  the 
most  substantial  and  effective  of  political  privileges, 
—  which  the  faction  of  the  "  outs  "  for  the  time  being 
always  struggles  to  secure  for  itself,  as  essential  means 
towards  regaining  a  political  predominance. 

Let  us  add,  too,  that,  with  the  progress  of  knowl- 
edge and  thought,  the  fact  comes  to  be  plainly  per- 
ceived that  to  raise  the  mass  of  the  people  to  a  more 
equal  participation  in  the  goods  of  life  is  essential  to 
the  further  progress  of  civilization ;  while,  with  the 
growing  force  of  the  sentiment  of  benevolence,  which 
acts  always  with  the  most  energy  among  those  in 
comfortable  circumstances,  a  disposition  springs  up  to 
contribute,  by  all  feasible  and  promising  means,  to  a 
result  so  much  to  be  desired.  The  disposition,  for 
example,  which  has  so  strongly  developed  itself  in 
England  during  the  last  thirty  years,  to  ameliorate 
the  condition  of  the  socially-enslaved  laboring  classes 
of  that  country,  cannot  but  be  regarded  as  a  most 
hopeful  omen  for  the  future. 

From  the  above  considerations,  it  necessarily  fol- 
lows that  the  natural  and  artificial  laws  which  regu- 
late the  accumulation,  and  especially  the  distribution, 
of  wealth  are  of  the  highest  importance  as  regards 
morals,  politics,  indeed  human  happiness  in  general. 


CIVIC    ARISTOCRACIES.  157 

The  particular  investigation  of  those  laws  belongs 
to  the  TJiepry  of  Wealth.  It  is  sufficient  to  observe 
here  that  ( great  and  permanent  inequalities  of  wealth 
always  result  from  and  are  kept  up  by  plunder,  mo- 
nopoly, entails,  the  exclusive  possession  of  public  em- 
ployment and  handling  of  public  money]  and  that, 
when  the  practice  of  plunder  ceases,  ana  all  special 
privileges  are  done  away  with,  the  tendency  always 
is  towards  a  certain  degree  of  equalization. 
14 


158  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 
ADDITIONAL  ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM  HISTORY: 

SECTION  FIRST. 
What  we  call  Universal  History. 

OF  the  ten  or  twelve  distinctly-marked  varieties  of 
the  human  family  by  which  we  find  the  globe  at  pres- 
ent possessed,  only  two  —  that  known  as  the  Tartar 
and  that  which  is  called  the  Caucasian  variety  —  have 
preserved  any  written  memorials  of  their  history.  The 
other  races  have  become  known  only  through  their 
contact  with  these  two,  and,  with  respect  to  most  of 
them,  that  knowledge  goes  back  but  to  quite  a  recent 
period. 

The  contact  between  the  two  great  historical  races, 
separated  as  they  have  been  by  the  vast  mountain 
chains  and  great  barren  steppes  of  Central  Asia,  has 
been  only  slight  and  occasional ;  and,  except  a  few 
violent  movements  from  east  to  west,  and  of  late  from 
west  to  east,  a  few  points  where  they  have  touched 
and  partially  intermingled,  a  few  common  influences 
which  have  been  brought  to  bear  more  or  less  strongly 
upon  both,  the  development  of  each  appears  to  have 
been  unique  and  distinct. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  written  historical  docu- 
ments of  the  Chinese  date  back  to  nearly  the  same 
period  with  those  of  the  Greeks ;  Confucius,  the  fa- 
ther of  Chinese  history,  as  well  as  philosophy,  having 
been  bom  a  few  years  after  the  death  of  Solon. 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       159 

Such,  however,  is  our  very  imperfect  knowledge  of 
Chinese  writings,  and,  it  is  to  be  feared,  the  immature 
character  of  Chinese  literature,  which,  in  the  long 
period  since  the  age  of  Confucius,  appears  to  have 
made  no  real  progress,  that  we  can  expect  little  light 
from  this  source  upon  any  political  question.  What 
we  call  UNIVERSAL  HISTORY  is  limited,  at  least  for  the 
present,  to  the  history  of  the  Caucasian  race ;  the . 
other  races  appearing  on  the  scene  only  as  they  come 
into  contact  or  collision  with  this. 

Before  written  documents  can  begin  to  exist,  —  arid 
without  written  documents  there  can  be  nothing  like 
chronological  history,  —  it  is  evident  that  a  great  ad- 
vance must  already  have  been  made  in  civilization ; 
and,  if  this  advance  took  place  by  spontaneous  de- 
velopment from  the  original  savage  tribe,  in  some 
favored  spots,  and  under  circumstances  peculiarly  fa- 
vorable, spreading  thence  to  other  communities  less 
favorably  situated,  who  learned  and  imitated  what 
they  never  could  have  invented,  it  may  well  be'  sup- 
posed to  have  consumed  a  goodly  period. 

At  the  point  of  time  at  which  chronological  history 
may  be  said  to  begin,  we  find  existing  great  cities  and 
extensive  empires,  in  the  arts  of  life,  and  in  scientific 
knowledge,  not  very  materially  behind  the  utmost 
limit  to  which,  till  within  three  or  four  centuries  past, 
the  race  has  attained  under  the  most  favorable  cir- 
cumstances. 

This  beginning  of  chronological  history  may  be 
fixed  at  the  commencement  of  the  Persian  empire 
founded  by  Cyrus,  to  which  the  date  is  here  ascribed 
of  550  B.  C.  Not  that  this  date  can  be  given  with 
any  real  precision,  but  because  an  even  year  in  the 


160  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

middle  of  a  century  serves  to  aid  the  memory  by 
facilitating  subdivisions  of  the  subsequent  period. 

It  is  possible,  indeed,  to  trace  back,  by  certain 
memorials  which  they  have  left  behind  them,  certain 
portions  of  the  Caucasian  race  to  a  period  far  anterior 
to  that  of  the  foundation  of  the  Persian  empire  —  an 
empire  itself  formed  by  the  conquest,  and  the  union 
under  one  prince,  of  many  ancient  kingdoms  and 
commonwealths  —  Indian,  Assyrian,  Syrian,  Egyp- 
tian, Lydian,  Phoenician,  Greek,  &c.  But  this  por- 
tion of  our  historical  knowledge,  consisting,  as  it  does, 
of  a  few  facts,  and  of  a  vast  quantity  of  conjectures 
founded  upon  them,  —  conjectures  still  very  immature 
and  unsystematic,  —  must  be  placed  under  the  head 
of  ANTIQUITIES  —  of  which  the  materials  are,  first, 
some  few  written  documents,  such  as  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey ;  some  fragments  of  the  Greek  lyric  poets, 
to  which  we  may  add  the  labors  of  certain  Greek 
scholars  of  the  Alexandrian  school,  (who  possessed 
those  materials,  such  as  they  were,  in  greater  abun- 
dance than  we  do,)  to  construct  out  of  them  a  sys- 
tematic chronology ;  portions  of  the  sacred  books  of 
the  Hebrews,  Persians,  and  Hindoos,  older  than  the 
date  above  fixed  upon  for  the  commencement  of 
chronological  history ;  the  inscriptions  on  the  ancient 
monuments  of  Egypt,  Nineveh,  &c.,  which  it  is  now 
so  laboriously  attempted  to  decipher,  and  not  alto- 
gether without  success ;  those  monuments  themselves, 
and  the  sculptures,  pictures,  and  other  works  of  art 
found  in  connection  with  them ;  and,  finally,  the  anal- 
ogy of  languages,  which  carries  us  back  to  some 
remote  period  when  the  common  ancestors  of  the 
Greeks,  the  Germans,  and  the  superior  castes  of  th»> 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY,        161 

Hindoos   fed   their   flocks  on   the    same    plains,   and 
formed  together  but  one  community. 

All  this  period  of  antiquities,  running  back  for 
indefinite  ages,  however  curious  and  interesting  on 
several  accounts,  is  of  little  importance  to  the  political 
student,  whose  attention  must  be  chiefly  fixed  on  the 
period  of  chronological  history.  Indeed,  it  is  only 
from  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  chronological 
period  that  we  can  hope  ever  to  bring  into  connec- 
tion such  few  fragments  and  indications  we  have  of 
previous  times,  so  as  to  construct  a  sort  of  conjectural 
history  out  of  them  —  as  the  geologists,  by  the  careful 
study  of  existing  phenomena  and  comparison  of  them 
with  the  relics  of  the  past,  conjecturally  reconstruct  for 
us  the  ancient  globe. 

Even  with  respect  to  that  period,  which  we  have 
designated  as  chronological,  including  twenty-four  cen- 
turies from  our  assumed  era  of  the  Persian  empire, 
down  to  the  year  1850,  our  knowledge  of  different 
portions  of  it  must  obviously  be  very  different ;  and 
as  to  many  counties  and  nations,  even  some  which 
have  played  a  very  distinguished  part  in  history,  the 
period  of  their  antiquities  must  be  brought  down  to  a 
much  later  date. 

To  assist  the  memory,  and  to  enable  us  the  more 
easily  to  pass  under  review  what  we  know  of  political 
history,  let  us  divide  our  twenty-four  chronological 
centuries  into  three  periods  of  eight  centuries  each 
—  subdivisions  which  we  designate  respectively  as 
ANCIENT,  MIDDLE,  and  MODERN. 
14* 


162  THEORY  OF  POLITICS. 

SECTION  SECOND. 
Ancient  Period. 

WE  include  under  this  period  the  eight  centuries 
from  B.  C.  550  to  A.  D.  250,  or  from  the  foundation 
of  the  Persian  empire  to  the  reduction  of  the  Roman 
empire  to  one  homogeneous  body  by  the  extension,  to 
all  the  subjects  of  it,  of  the  rights  of  Roman  citizen- 
ship —  an  era  marked  also  as  the  commencement  of  a 
new  order  of  things,  by  the  first  invasion  of  the  bar- 
barians, by  whom  the  Roman  empire  was  finally 
overthrown  ;  and  still  more  remarkably  by  the  first 
serious  and  general  persecution  of  the  Christians  — 
the  beginning  of  that  great  struggle  between  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  powers  which  has  since  played  so 
serious  a  part  in  European  affairs. 

This  ancient  period  may  again  be  divided  into  two 
sub-periods  of  four  centuries  each,  of  which  that  from 
B.  C.  550  to  B.  C.  150  may  be  distinguished  as 
GRECIAN,  and  that  from  B.  C.  150  to  A.  D.  250  as 
ROMAN. 

The  Grecian  sub-period  may  again  be  subdivided 
into  the  Age  of  the  Greek  Republics,  B.  C.  550-350, 
and  the  Age  of  the  Greek  Kingdoms,  B.  C.  350-150. 
But,  as  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  speak  at 
considerable  length  of  both  these  ages,  so  far  as 
the  history  of  the  Greeks  is  concerned,  it  will  not  be 
necessary  to  resume  that  subject  here. 

It  was  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  second  of  these 
ages  —  the  age  of  the  Greek  kingdoms  —  that  the 
Roman  republic,  of  which  the  early  accounts  must  be 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       163 

regarded  as  partly  fabulous  and  partly  conjectural, 
begins  to  become  visible  above  the  political  horizon. 
Commencing  with  the  complete  and  final  subjection 
of  the  Latins  on  the  immediate  banks  of  the  Tiber, 
the  Romans  proceeded,  in  the  next  three  quarters  of 
a  century,  to  the  conquest  of  all  Italy  south  of  the 
Rubicon,  including  the  ancient  Greek  cities  plant- 
ed on  either  coast.  This  extension  of  empire  was 
soon  followed  by  a  struggle  with  the  powerful  com- 
mercial republic  of  Carthage  —  of  the  internal  policy 
and  political  history  of  which  we  are  unfortunately  so 
ignorant  —  for  the  possession  of  Sicily  ;  which  finally 
passed,  A.  D.  241,  with  all  its  ancient  Greek  cities, 
under  the  Roman  rule.  In  the  course  of  the  next 
hundred  years,  not  only  were  Cisalpine  Gaul,  (Italy, 
that  is,  between  the  Rubicon  and  the  ^.Ips,)  and  the 
eastern  shore  of  what  is  now  called  the  Gulf  of 
Venice,  added  to  these  conquests,  but  a  second  des- 
perate struggle  with  Carthage  —  during  which  Italy 
was  invaded  by  Hannibal,  and  the  Roman  power 
shaken  to  its  very  centre  —  resulted  in  the  complete 
triumph  of  the  Romans ;  in  the  confirmation  of  their 
authority  in  Italy  and  Sicily ;  the  subjection  to  Roman 
power  of  the  provinces  which  the  Carthaginians  had 
conquered  in  Spain ;  and,  finally,  in  the  capture  and 
destruction  of  Carthage  itself,  and  the  absorption  by 
Rome  of  its  African  dependencies.  The  Greek  king- 
dom of  Macedonia,  which  had  been  drawn  into  the 
struggle  as  an  ally  of  Hannibal,  and  all  the  cities  and 
republics  of  Greece,  shared  also  a  similar  fate.  Even 
a  large  part  of  the  Asiatic  Greeks  fell  at  the  same 
time  under  direct  Roman  influence,  being  ruled,  at 


164  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

first,  by  princes  under  their  patronage,  and  becoming 
presently  Roman  provincials. 

The  Roman  history  during  this  period  ought  to  be 
fuller  of  political  instruction  than  even  the  preceding 
age  of  the  Greek  republics,  dealing  as  it  does  with 
larger  communities  and  masses  of  power.  But, 
limited  and  insufficient  as  our  means  are  for  ob- 
taining a  true  idea  of  the  history  of  the  Greeks,  as 
regards  this  first  historical  portion  of  the  Roman 
annals,  our  materials  are  still  less  satisfactory. 
Nothing  can  supply  the  loss  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  history  of  Polybius.  We  shall  strive  in  vain  to 
gather  from  the  rhetorical  pages  of  Livy  any  clear 
idea  —  which  he  himself  probably  did  not  possess  or 
even  aim  at  —  of  the  relations  of  Rome  to  the  con- 
quered cities  and  states  of  Italy,  upon  which  the  fate 
of  Hannibal's  invasion  so  essentially  depended  ;  or, 
indeed,  of  the  real  political  constitution  of  Carthage ; 
or  even  of  that  of  Rome  itself.  The  true  political 
history  of  this  whole  period,  hardly  less  than  that  of 
the  primitive  Roman  state,  can  in  fact  be  little  more 
than  guessed  at. 

The  four  hundred  years,  designated  above  as  the  RO- 
MAN sub-period,  —  B.  C.  150  to  A.  D.  250,  —  may  also 
be  subdivided  into  two  ages,  each  of  two  centuries ; 
the  first  of  which,  that  from  B.  C.  150  to  A.  D.  50, 
may  be  distinguished  as  the  Age  of  the  Roman  City, 
and  the  other,  A.  D.  50-250,  as  the  Age  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  For  the  first  of  these  ages  —  to  the  com- 
mencement of  which  belongs  indeed  the  final  sub- 
jection, already  mentioned,  of  Carthage,  Macedonia, 
Greece,  and  Western  Asia  Minor  —  materials  are 
more  ample.  Yet,  in  spite  of  the  meritorious  labor 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       165 

of  critics  and  antiquarians,  who  have  pressed  into  the 
service  every  hint  and  scrap  any  where  to  be  found, 
though  the  chronological  series  of  events  is  pretty 
exactly  ascertained,  as  to  their  springs  and  causes, 
as  well  as  to  the  actual  political  character  of  those 
events,  we  remain  often  very  much  in  the  dark. 

For  the  whole  eight  centuries  of  what  we  call  the 
ancient  period,  our  authorities  are  in  truth  exceedingly 
limited,  giving  to  them  so  much  of  the  character  of 
the  still  more  ancient  ages,  that  a  great  deal  must  be 
supplied  by  conjecture.  For  the  greater  part  of  that 
period  no  contemporary  documents  exist,  except  a 
few  poems,  orations,  and  letters ;  while  of  the  historical 
writers,  on  whose  relations  we  are  obliged  chiefly  to 
depend,  very  few  are  even  the  original  compilers, 
from  good  or  bad  materials,  of  the  accounts  which 
we  have ;  these  accounts  being  derived,  to  a  great 
extent,  from  fragments  of  compilers  at  second  or 
third  hand,  of  whose  judgment  as  to  testimony,  and 
much  less  of  whose  scientific  knowledge  of  politics,  it 
is  impossible  to  form  any  very  high  estimate.  They 
seem,  indeed,  often  to  have  regarded  forms  of  expres- 
sions and  rhetorical  effect  as  of  at  least  quite  as 
much  importance  as  the  matter  which  they  had  to 
communicate.  There  are  no  other  such  writers  in  all 
antiquity  as  Thucydides  and  Polybius — of  the  lat- 
ter, we  possess  but  a  fragment ;  —  and  even  they, 
with  alf  the  light  which  they  throw  upon  ancient 
history,  suppose  their  readers  to  possess  a  great 
amount  of  information,  the  lack  of  which  can  only  be 
supplied  by  guesses  more  or  less  plausible. 

Hence  it  follows  that  any  political  conclusions, 
founded  solely  upon  Greek  and  Roman  examples, 


166  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

are  to  be  received  with  great  caution.  In  fact,  it 
is  only  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  general  theory 
of  politics  that  can  enable  us  to  construct,  from 
such  fragments  as  we  have,  any  thing  like  a  tolerably 
probable  skeleton  of  the  history  of  the  ancient  period 
—  a  theory,  however,  to  which  the  recorded  history 
of  the  Grecian  and  Roman  republics  must  be  admit- 
ted to  contribute  a  very  important  aid. 


SECTION  THIRD. 
Middle  Period. 

THE  eight  centuries  from  A.  D.  250  to  A.  D.  1050, 
which  we  have  designated  as  the  Middle  Period,  will 
also  admit  (to  aid  the  memory)  of  a  division  into  two 
sub-periods,  each  of  four  hundred  years,  of  which  the 
earlier,  from  A.  D.  250  to  A.  D.  650,  may  be  dis- 
tinguished as  BARBARICO-CHRISTIAN,  and  the  other, 
from  A.  D.  650  to  A.  D.  1050,  as  BARBARICO-MOSLEM. 

There  are  two  things  which  these  two  sub-periods 
have  remarkably  in  common  :  first,  successive  barbaric 
invasions,  sweeping  away  and  almost,  or  quite,  de- 
stroying, a  preexisting  civilization,  built  on  too  narrow 
and  weak  a  basis  to  be  able  to  resist  these  impetuous 
torrents  ;  and  secondly,  the  vast  force  of  mystical  ideas. 
In  the  earlier  sub-period  this  force  is  exhibited,  not  only 
in  the  triumph  of  the  Christian  church  —  which  had 
originated,  in  the  two  previous  centuries,  from  most 
obscure  and  feeble  beginnings  —  over  the  old  super- 
stitions, the  old  philosophies,  the  laws,  and  the  civil 
authorities  of  the  Roman  empire,  which  united 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       167 

strove  vainly  to  suppress  it ;  but  in  its  triumph  also 
over  the  invading  barbarians,  by  whom  the  Western 
empire  was  overwhelmed.  In  the  latter  period  we 
may  observe  this  same  mystic  influence,  not  gradually 
developing  itself  by  the  cooperation  of  many  individ- 
uals, through  long  periods  of  time,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Christian  church,  but  welling  forth,  as  it  were,  a 
full  and  foaming  torrent  from  the  soul  of  a  single 
individual,  and  inspiring  into  the  nomadic  barba- 
rians, who  successively  became  its  instruments  and 
depositaries,  not  only  the  strength  and  courage  to 
overrun  and  subdue  those  provinces  of  the  Roman 
empire  which  had  hitherto  repelled  invasion,  but  im- 
parting to  them  the  mental  energy  to  triumph  over, 
to  tread  out,  and  almost  or  quite  to  extinguish,  in 
the  countries  of  which  they  became  the  masters,  the 
Christian  church  itself,  not  less  than  other  more 
ancient  religious  organizations  ;  making  it,  indeed, 
for  ages,  a  doubtful  question,  whether  Mohammedan- 
ism, instead  of  Christianity,  should  not  overspread  the 
world. 

A  vast  deal  of  important  political  knowledge  is,  no 
doubt,  to  be  obtained  from  the  study  of  the  history  of 
this  middle  period.  Nor,  although  it  includes  the  times 
commonly  designated  as  the  Dark  Ages,  is  it  by  any 
means  so  deficient  as  the  more  ancient  period  which 
precedes  it  in  original  and  contemporary  documents  ; 
at  least  in  so  far  as  relates  to  the  history  of  Christen- 
dom. The  multitudinous  volumes  of  the  Christian 
fathers,  the  codes  of  Theodoric  and  Justinian,  a 
considerable  number  of  barbaric  codes,  and  many 
contemporary  annalists  in  a  variety  of  languages,  be- 
long to  these  times.  But  it  must  be  confessed,  that, 


168  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

in  general,  these  writings  are  very  little  inviting,  and 
that  the  direct  contributions  which  they  make  to 
philosophy  of  any  kind  are  exceedingly  small.  The 
whole  period,  indeed,  may  be  aptly  termed  Dark,  as 
one  upon  which  the  mind,  ever  anxious  for  progress 
and  improvement,  loves  not  to  dwell ;  of  which  the 
distinguishing  feature  is  a  succession  of  barbaric  in- 
vasions, threatening  to  sweep  away  all  that  had  been 
done  for  the  elevation  of  the  race  in  previous  periods, 
to  obliterate  ancient  knowledge  and  art,  and  to  reduce 
the  whole  human  family  to  a  common  level  of  igno- 
rance, poverty,  and  superstition  —  a  disagreeable  scene, 
over  which  the  imitative  and  imperfect  science  of  the 
courts  of  the  caliphs,  and  Charlemagne's  ineffectual 
struggles  after  a  new  Roman  empire,  throw  but  a 
few  faint  and  ineffectual  glimmers  of  light. 


SECTION  FOURTH. 
Modern  Period. 

THE  period  of  eight  centuries  from  A.  D.  1050  to 
the  present  moment,  distinguished  in  our  division  as 
the  Modern  Period,  admits  also  of  an  equal  division 
into  sub-periods,  which  may  be  aptly  enough  desig- 
nated as  FEUDAL  and  COMMERCIAL. 

The  first  two  centuries  of  the  feudal  ages,  from  A.  D. 
1050  to  A.  D.  1250,  constitute,  as  it  were,  a  prolonga- 
tion of  the  preceding  period.  The  crusades,  and  the 
attempt  at  a  theocratic  monarchy  over  Europe  in  the 
person  of  the  pope,  supported  by  the  religious  orders, 
were  its  leading  events  ;  and  it  may,  in  consequence, 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.        169 

be  well  enough  distinguished  as  the  Age  of  the  Priests. 
The  following  age,  —  the  latter  half  of  the  feudal  sub- 
period,  from  A.  D.  1250  to  A.  D.  1450, — during  which 
Western  Europe  seemed  in  danger  of  being  resolved 
into  a  vast  number  of  independent  and  quarrelsome 
principalities,  may  be  designated,  from  that  circum- 
stance, as  the  Age  of  the  Nobles.  The  political 
characteristics  of  the  feudal  sub-period  having  been 
already  treated  at  some  length  in  a  previous  chapter, 
we  shall  pass  at  once,  without  further  comment,  to 
that  more  recent  sub-period  which  we  have  called  the 
commercial. 

The  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  gave  birth 
to  a  number  of  remarkable  events,  many  of  them 
significant  of,  and  others  tending  to  produce,  a  great 
change  in  the  political  as  well  as  social  condition  of 
Christendom.  Among  these  events  were  the  final 
expulsion  of  the  English  from  France,  and  the  great 
extension  of  the  monarchical  power  in  that  country 
by  the  annexation  to  the  French  crown  of  the  re- 
maining great  fiefs ;  the  war  of  the  Roses,  so  fatal  to 
the  old  English  nobility,  and  the  great  increase  of  the 
power  of  the  English  crown  which  followed  the  union 
of  the  rival  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster ;  the  union 
of  the  whole  of  Spain  under  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
and  the  vast  extension  which  ensued  of  the  mo- 
narchical power  in  that  country  ;  the  marriage  of 
Maximilian  of  Austria  with  the  heiress  of  Burgundy, 
the  union  of  the  divided  possessions  of  the  house  of 
Hapsburg  in  his  person,  the  intermarriage  of  his  son 
with  the  heiress  of  Castile,  and  the  intimate  alliance 
which  presently  followed  between  Spain  and  Austria, 
leading  to  a  great  increase  of  the  Austrian  influence. 
15 


170  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

To  these  dynastic  events  may  be  added  the  abolition 
of  private  war  in  Germany,  and  the  establishment  of 
the  Imperial  Chamber  for  the  settlement  of  the  dis- 
putes of  the  sovereign  princes,  prelates,  and  cities  ; 
improvements  in  military  science,  and  the  substitution 
of  mercenary  armies  of  foot  soldiers  in  place  of  the 
mounted  feudal  chivalry,  by  which  the  consequence 
and  weight  of  the  nobility  were  greatly  diminished  — 
'  vents  tending  also  to  the  enhancement  of  monarchical 
,,ower ;  the  introduction  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
^nguage  into  Europe,  and  the  new  interest  excited  in 
<ie  study  of  the  ancient  classical  writers ;  the  discov- 
ery and  diffusion  of  the  art  of  printing ;  and  great 
advances,  both  in  the  art  and  the  science  of  naviga- 
tion, leading  to  the  discovery  of  America,  and  of  the 
passage  to  India  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  —  events 
which  tended  to  a  great  increase  and  diffusion  of  both 
knowledge  and  wealth  among  the  burgher  class,  and 
a  comparative  depression  of  both  nobles  and  clergy. 

With  the  half  century  made  illustrious  by  these 
occurrences,  that  which  we  call  the  commercial  sub- 
period  of  modern  history  begin?,  divisible,  like  the 
other  sub-periods,  into  two  subdivisions  of  two  cen- 
turies each,  which  may  be  respectively  designated  as 
the  Age  of  the  Kings  and  the  Age  of  the  Burghers  — 
subdivisions  which,  with  those  of  the  feudal  sub-period, 
serve  to  indicate  the  successive  predominancy,  during 
the  eight  centuries  of  the  modern  period,  of  the  four 
great  orders  by  whom,  throughout  that  period,  the 
political  power  of  Christendom  has  been  engrossed. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
political  power  in  Europe  was  shared  between  three 
sets  of  participators  in  a  principal,  and  two  other  set? 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       171. 

in  an  inferior  degree.  The  greater  portion  of  author- 
ity was  now  possessed  by  the  kings,  who  had  recently 
made  great  strides,  and  whose  authority  was  sup- 
ported by  traditionary  respect,  by  the  idea  of  property 
in  power,  by  the  standing  armies  which  they  had 
begun  to  keep  up,  and  by  the  revenue  of  their  do- 
mains, to  which  the  greater  part  of  them  had  begun 
or  were  beginning  to  add  the  imposition  of  taxes 
at  their  pleasure,  at  least  upon  the  tiers  etat,  or  body 
of  citizens.  Next  were  the  nobles,  whose  power  was 
upheld  by  traditionary  respect,  their  great  landed  pos- 
sessions, and  their  military  spirit,  skill,  and  courage. 
The  clergy  stood  third,  sustained  by  the  still  powerful 
though  declining  influence  of  mystical  ideas,  and  the 
great  amount  of  property  in  lands  and  tithes  of  which 
they  had  possessed  themselves.  A  very  inferior  de- 
gree of  influence  was  exercised  by  the  lawyers,  the 
nobles  of  the  robe,  resting  upon  their  superior  knowl- 
edge, and  the  favor  and  respect  with  which  they  were 
regarded  as  conservators  of  the  peace  and  protectors 
of  the  rights  of  all ;  and  still  below  the  lawyers  stood 
the  citizens  of  the  municipalities,  who  owed  such 
share  of  political  influence  as  they  had  to  their  con- 
centration in  towns  and  cities,  to  the  riches  in  money 
and  merchandise  which  they  possessed,  and  to  their 
superior  knowledge,  skill,  and  industry,  employed  in 
amassing  wealth. 

The  great  body  of  the  people  —  the  cultivators  of 
the  soil  —  had  but  recently  in  any  part  of  Europe, 
and  in  many  parts  of  it  have  as  yet  but  partially, 
emerged  from  the  condition  of  serfs.  Of  course,  po- 
litically speaking,  they  had  no  perceptible  influence 
whatever.  Even  in  the  municipalities,  the  great  mass 


172  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

of  the  artisans  had  been  reduced  almost  to  a  similar 
political  insignificance;  the  wealth,  and  along  with 
it  the  political  power,  of  those  communities  having 
concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  few  rich  men,  who 
constituted  a  sort  of  civic  nobility,  and  who  already 
began  to  purchase  titles  and  privileges,  to  court  inter- 
marriages with,  and  to  assume,  as  far  as  they  might, 
the  airs  and  pretensions  of  the  old  feudal  nobles. 

Luther's  rebellion  against  the  papal  authority,— 
the  first  successful  resistance  which,  for  centuries, 
Europe  had  seen  to  spiritual  authority  in  spiritual 
matters,  —  by  producing  a  schism  among  the  clergy, 
tended  greatly  to  diminish  their  political  power,  which, 
with  some  temporary  fluctuations,  has  gone  on  dimin- 
ishing from  that  day  to  this.  This  same  schism  oper- 
ated greatly  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  monarchs ; 
for,  while  struggling  hard  to  secure  the  kings  on  their 
side,  the  clergy,  both  Catholic  and  Protestant,  bribed 
high,  by  the  surrender  to  the  monarchs  of  the  nomi- 
nation to  the  chief  ecclesiastical  benefices,  and  even 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  wealth  of  the  church. 

For  many  centuries  preceding  the  Protestant  ref- 
ormation, the  power  of  the  kings  and  of  the  clergy 
had  been  antagonistical ;  but,  in  consequence  of  that 
event,  a  strict  alliance  began  to  be  formed,  alike  in 
the  Popish  and  the  Protestant  states,  between  the 
throne  and  the  altar  —  an  alliance  necessary,  perhaps, 
to  the  priests,  but  largely  increasing  the  power  of  the 
kings,  and  tending  to  annihilate  the  political  authority 
of  the  nobles  and  the  citizens,  reducing  them  to  a 
common  level  with  the  emancipated  serfs,  and  com- 
pressing the  whole  body  of  the  subjects,  so  far  as 
political  rights  were  concerned,  into  one  homogeneous, 
passive,  unresisting  mass. 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       l/'i 

Some  of  the  Protestants,  in  their  anxiety  to  make 
the  balance  incline  in  their  favor,  seem  to  have  been 
willing  to  push  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of 
kings  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  it  include  the 
ultimate  control  of  spiritual  as  well  as  of  secular 
matters  —  the  first  commencement  of  that  impious 
doctrine  that  there  is  no  power  nor  law  higher  than 
that  of  the  civil  authority. 

This  cooperative  union  of  the  civil  and  spiritual 
power  was  carried  furthest  in  the  Spanish  and  Aus- 
trian dominions,  particularly  the  former,  vastly  ex- 
tended by  the  acquisition  of  Naples,  Milan,  and  the 
Netherlands,  and  by  the  discovery  of  America,  and 
the  conquests  achieved  there  by  Cortez,  Pizarro,  and 
others.  The  Spaniards,  it  is  to  be  observed,  were 
never  a  commercial  people.  Their  acquisitions  in  the 
new  world  were  not  the  result  of  mercantile,  nor  even 
of  colonizing  enterprises,  but  the  fruits  of  pure  con- 
quest. The  theocratic  governments  which  they  over- 
turned in  America  were  easily  replaced  by  a  new 
Catholic  theocracy  dependent  on  the  crown — the  peo- 
ple, thoroughly  broken  to  obedience  by  former  rulers, 
submitting,  almost  without  a  struggle,  to  the  change 
of  masters. 

In  all  those  vast  and  wealthy  dominions  which,  for 
two  centuries,  made  the  Spanish  name  at  once  the 
terror  and  the  admiration  of  Europe,  by  the  joint 
effort  of  king  and  priest,  backed  by  the  order  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  by  the  terrible  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition, 
the  liberty  of  the  press,  the  liberty  of  speech,  almost 
the  liberty  of  thought,  were  suppressed  —  a  discipline 
fatal  alike  to  noble  and  to  citizen,  under  which  the 
Spanish  dominions  sunk  fast  into  a  stupid  lethargy, 
15* 


174  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

falling,  as  compared  with  the  other  states  of  Europe, 
at  least  a  century  behindhand  in  the  progress  of  civil- 
ization. 

Under  the  joint  influence  of  Spain  and  the  papal 
dominion,  Italy,  the  birthplace  and  cradle  of  our 
modern  civilization,  science,  and  arts,  its  once  fa- 
mous republics  reduced  to  insignificance  or  changed 
into  tyrannies,  its  municipal  spirit  declining  and  al- 
most extinguished,  sunk,  like  Spain,  into  languor  and 
decay. 

In  the  rest  of  Europe,  this  partnership  of  power 
between  the  kings  and  the  clergy  was  less  successful. 
The  foothold  which  Protestant  ideas  had  obtained 
in  France,  Germany,  and  the  northern  nations,  made 
it  impossible  for  the  Catholic  priests,  in  spite  of  the 
powerful  reaction  and  the  efforts  of  the  Jesuits  during 
the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  to  reestablish 
their  influence;  while  the  mutual  labors  of  the  Cath- 
olic and  Protestant  clergy  to  damage  and  refute  each 
other  had  a  natural  tendency  to  diminish  the  influence 
of  both.  It  became  necessary  for  the  kings  to  choose 
between  these  two  contending  parties  ;  and,  by  siding 
with  the  one,  of  course  they  made  enemies  of  the 
other.  In  France,  it  cost  the  kingly  power  a  whole 
century  to  break  down  the  combination  against  it  of 
the  Protestant  portion  of  the  nobles  and  the  munici- 
palities ;  and  the  same  cause,  during  the  same  period, 
occasioned  repeated  civil  wars  in  Germany.  It  was 
the  attempt,  on  the  part  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  to 
carry  out  this  Catholic  reaction  in  the  Netherlands, 
and  to  suppress  the  Calvinistic  heresy  there  by  tire, 
sword,  and  the  Inquisition,  which  produced  the  re- 
volt of  those  provinces  —  a  revolt  which  seven  of  the 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       175 

poorer  and  least  accessible  of  them  succeeded,  after 
a  desperate  struggle,  in  successfully  maintaining. 

The  complicated  administration  of  this  emanci- 
pated Dutch  republic  presented  a  revival  of  the  forms 
and  spirit  of  the  feudal  ages.  The  control  of  the 
Dutch  cities,  and,  through  them,  of  the  states,  pro- 
vincial and  general,  was  in  the  hands  of  close  corpo- 
rations, a  civic  nobility  which,  though  deeply  imbued 
with  and  representing  the  municipal  spirit,  still  kept 
the  mass  of  the  people  in  a  degraded  subjection.  But 
so  far  as  related  to  the  general  administration  of  af- 
fairs, this  control  was  sometimes  disputed  and  some- 
times shared  by  the  house  of  Orange,  representing  the 
monarchical  power,  backed  by  the  rural  nobles,  and 
not  unfrequently  by  the  mass  of  the  people.  In  fact, 
the  Dutch  Calvinistic  clergy,  jealous  of  the  progress 
of  Arminian  opinions,  threw  themselves  into  the  arms 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange  ;  and,  strengthened  by  this 
alliance,  —  so  much  like  that  of  the  Catholic  clergy  and 
rnonarchs, — they  attempted  to  suppress  the  Arminian 
heresy  by  very  much  the  same  weapons  which  Philip 
II.  had  employed  against  themselves.  But,  with  the 
growing  wealth  and  intelligence  of  the  Dutch  cities, 
mystical  influence  rapidly  diminished ;  and  this  re- 
public first  led  the  way  in  the  modern  system  of  tol- 
eration by  allowing  liberty  of  opinion  to  all  Protestant 
sects.  It  was,  indeed,  hardly  less  by  the  freedom  of 
publication  which  they  first  granted,  than  by  the 
great  wealth  which  they  amassed  by  commerce,  that 
the  Dutch  came  to  exercise  so  considerable  an  influ- 
ence over  European  affairs. 

Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  Luther,  and  of  the 
English  clergy  who  favored  the  reformation,  to  secure 


176  TflKORY    OF    POLITICS. 

monarchical  support  by  pushing  to  most  extravagant 
lengths  the  notion  of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  yet  the 
monarchs,  by  instinctive  logic,  were  able  to  perceive 
that  the  fundamental  Protestant  doctrine  of  the  right 
of  private  judgment,  by  which  rebellion  against  the 
pope  and  the  church  was  justified,  might  equally  well 
be  made  to  justify  rebellion  against  themselves.  Nor, 
indeed,  did  the  nobles  and  the  burgesses,  with  whom 
the  Protestant  doctrines  principally  found  favor,  at  all 
respond  to  the  slavish  sentiments  put  forward  by  some 
of  the  Protestant  clergy.  Hence  the  efforts,  on  the 
part  of  the  monarchs,  cooperating  with  the  church, 
having  obtained  from  it  those  large  concessions  al- 
ready alluded  to,  and  being  thus  placed  in  a  position 
to  have  less  to  dread  from  it  than  from  the  combined 
nobles  and  burgesses,  to  crush  at  once  nobles,  bur- 
gesses, and  the  Protestant  heresy  —  efforts  completely 
successful  in  Spain  and  Italy,  and  partially  so  in  Ger- 
many and  France.  On  the  continent  of  Europe,  it 
was  only  in  the  northern  kingdoms  of  Sweden,  Nor- 
way, and  Denmark,  in  which,  at  the  commencement 
of  the  reformation,  the  nobles  had  been  all-powerful, 
(and  the  same  was  true  of  Scotland;)  in  the  revolted 
Dutch  provinces ;  in  the  more  wealthy  of  the  Swiss 
cantons,  and  of  the  German  imperial  cities  ;  and  in 
the  dominions  of  a  few  princes  of  Northern  and  East- 
ern Germany,  whose  forefathers  had  become  early 
champions  of  Protestantism  against  the  efforts  of  the 
Emperor  Charles  V.  to  suppress  it  —  standing  thus, 
though,  in  most  respects,  sovereign  princes  themselves, 
yet,  as  feudataries  of  the  empire,  in  the  relation  of 
nobles  to  a  monarch; — it  was  only  in  these  few  spots 
of  the  continent  (if  we  except  the  rights,  speedily  taken 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       177 

away,  secured  to  the  French  Huguenots  by  the  edict 
of  Nantz)  that  Protestantism  was  left  with  a  recog- 
nized existence  by  the  famous  peace  of  Munster,  con- 
cluded in  1648,  just  at  the  termination  of  that  period 
which  we  have  denominated  the  age  of  the  kings. 
Nor,  indeed,  could  even  this  peace  have  been  secured 
but  for  Richelieu's  ambition  to  raise  France,  over  the 
heads  of  Spain  and  Austria,  to  the  leadership  in  Eu- 
rope—  an  ambition  to  gratify  which,  while  crushing 
the  French  Huguenots  with  one  hand,  he  was  led,  as 
Francis  I.  had  been  before  him,  to  aid  with  the  other 
the  Protestants  of  Holland  and  Germany.  It  seems, 
indeed,  to  have  been  only  this  want  of  union  among 
the  crowned  heads,  or  those  who  acted  for  them,  that 
saved  Protestantism  from  total  ruin. 

The  Catholic  church,  however,  had  not  obtained 
this  partial  triumph  except  by  the  surrender  of  a  large 
part  of  its  wealth  and  independence,  and  by  a  sup- 
pression at  least  of  its  claims  to  supereminent  author- 
ity ;  being  now  reduced  to  seek  to  exercise  by  indirec- 
tion, and  through  the  influence  of  father  confessors 
over  kings  and  their  mistresses,  that  control  which  it 
had  once  boldly  claimed  in  despite  of  kings,  and  in 
the  face  of  the  world.  As  to  the  Protestant  clergy, 
though  they  labored  hard  to  concentrate  in  their  own 
hands  all  that  domineering  authority  of  which  they 
had  stripped  their  Catholic  predecessors,  they  found 
themselves  constantly  thwarted,  on  the  one  side,  by 
the  educated  and  reflecting,  who  claimed  more  and 
more  a  right  of  private  judgment,  which  verged  fast 
upon  freethinking,  and  the  total  denial,  more  or  less 
explicit,  of  any  such  special  divine  commission  and 
authority  as  the  clergy  claimed  ;  and,  on  the  other,  by 


178  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

the  same  spirit  developing  itself  among  the  ignorant 
and  uncultivated,  in  claims  of  special  personal  illumi- 
nation not  less  hostile  to  the  pretensions  of  the  estab- 
lished churches.  Everywhere,  indeed,  throughout  the 
Protestant  states,  —  as  we  have  already  seen  to  have 
been  the  case  in  Holland,  —  the  Protestants  of  the 
old  school  found  themselves  beset  by  a  double-faced 
new  school  Protestantism,  very  much  as,  in  the  early 
days  of  the  reformation,  the  old  school  Protestantism 
had  beset  Rome.  The  civil  power,  indeed,  whose 
aid  was  loudly  invoked  by  the  Protestant  clergy,  was 
strong  enough  every  where  on  the  continent  to  sap- 
press  any  new  fanatical  movement  at  progressive 
reformation,  and  even  for  a  time  to  hold  in  check 
the  freethinking  tendency.  But  this  last,  with  the 
peace,  order,  and  increase  of  wealth  and  science, 
which  followed  the  termination  of  the  religious  civil 
wars,  continued  to  grow,  silently  but  steadily. 

During  the  whole  of  this  period  of  two  centuries, 
(1450-1650,)  monarchical  power,  throughout  the  whole 
of  Europe,  —  except  towards  the  end  of  it,  in  Eng- 
land and  Holland,  —  had  been  constantly  on  the  ad- 
vance. Strengthened  by  the  adhesion  of  the  clergy, 
and  supported  by  standing  armies,  the  monarchs  had 
ceased  any  longer  to  assemble  the  States,  Cortes,  or 
Parliaments  of  their  respective  dominions ;  assuming 
to  themselves  the  absolute  right  of  levying  taxes  at 
their  own  pleasure  —  an  assumption  which  struck  a 
deathblow  at  what  remained  of  the  political  power 
of  the  nobles  and  the  municipalities.  But,  though 
very  distasteful  to  the  old  feudal  nobility,  this  increase 
of  the  monarchical  power  was  not  without  its  at- 
tendant benefits.  The  rapacity  and  violence  natural 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       179 

to  the  nobles,  which,  especially  during  the  religious 
civil  wars,  had  risen  to  a  fearful  height,  threatening  a 
retrogression  into  barbarism,  were  restrained  within 
certain  legal  limits.  Life  and  property  were  rendered 
more  secure.  If  the  old  municipal  corporations  and 
guilds  found  their  particular  local  privileges  and  rights 
of  self-government  curtailed,  they  had  long  since 
ceased  to  be  any  thing  but  narrow  civic  aristocracies, 
the  loss  of  whose  privileges  affected  but  a  few  individ- 
uals. On  the  other  hand,  the  municipal  spirit  of  the 
accumulation  of  wealth  by  industrious  methods  re- 
ceived a  decided  impulse,  of  which  the  fruits  soon 
began  to  appear  in  a  marked  increase  of  riches, 
giving  origin  to  a  new  civic  aristocracy  rising  from 
the  ranks  of  the  burgesses,  and  attended  by  that 
increase  of  learning  and  refinement  to  which  wealth 
and  leisure  are  absolutely  essential.  And  in  this 
progress  the  feudal  aristocracy  largely  shared  ;  the 
increase  of  trade,  population,  and  wealth,  giving  a 
new  value  to  their  lands,  and,  without  any  effort  of 
their  own,  a  corresponding  increase  to  their  income. 
Even  the  peasantry,  but  especially  the  laboring  arti- 
sans of  the  towns,  participated,  to  a  certain  degree,  in 
this  common  progress  —  an  important  approach  being 
made  towards  democratical  equality  by  the  compres- 
sion of  all  the  subjects  into  one  homogeneous  mass, 
with  common  interests  and  common  feelings.  So 
evident,  indeed,  was  the  superiority  of  this  state  of 
things  over  the  old  feudal  violence  and  irregularities, 
that  some  able  writers  and  good  men,  such  as  Grotius, 
became  very  favorably  disposed  towards  absolute 
monarchy,  as,  on  the  whole,  the  best  form  of  govern- 
ment. And  so  strong  did  this  sentiment  become,  that, 


[80  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

in  1661,  the  states  of  Denmark  voluntarily  acknowl- 
edged Frederic  III.  as  their  absolute  king  —  a  pro- 
ceeding imitated,  not  long  after,  in  Sweden,  which, 
as  well  as  Denmark,  had  suffered  severely  from  the 
contentions  of  the  nobles. 

That  England  did  not  follow  the  career  of  the  states 
of  the  continent ;  that  the  reformation  was  not  checked 
there  with  a  hand  at  least  as  strong  as  in  France  and 
Germany,  if,  indeed,  Italy  and  Spain  had  not  rather 
furnished  the  example  ;  that  the  Parliament  did  not 
die  out  simultaneously  with  the  similar  continental 
assemblies,  seems  —  on  such  slender  threads  does  the 
fate  of  nations  often  hang  —  to  have  been  largely 
owing  to  the  self-willed  caprices  of  a  single  man  — 
a  man,  however,  who,  from  his  position  of  monarch, 
constituted  an  order  and  a  leading  power  in  the  state. 
It  was  nothing  but  the  state  quarrel  of  Henry  VIIL, 
about  his  divorce  from  Catharine  of  Aragon,  with  the 
pope,  who  did  not  dare  to  gratify  him  for  fear  of  of- 
fending the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  that  carried  Henry, 
contrary  to  the  general  royal  impulse,  to  the  Protes- 
tant side.  He  was  willing  enough,  indeed,  to  break 
up  the  numerous  monasteries  and  nunneries  for  the 
sake  of  the  rich  plunder  they  afforded,  and  even  to 
strip  the  secular  clergy  of  a  part  of  their  vast  posses- 
sions ;  but,  otherwise,  this  "  Defender  of  the  Faith," 
who  had  written,  in  his  younger  days,  against  Luther, 
was  much  more  of  a  usurper  than  of  a  reformer, 
preferring,  so  far  as  England  was  concerned,  himself 
to  step  into  the  pope's  shoes,  and  to  dictate  articles 
of  faith  to  both  clergy  and  laity  alike.  The  clergy, 
both  those  inclined  to  the  new  doctrines  and  those 
disposed  to  adhere  to  the  old  ones,  with  a  pliancy 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       181 

which  shows  how  little  hold  the  church  had  at  that 
crisis,  apart  from  its  livings,  upon  the  hearts  even  of 
its  highest  dignitaries,  vied  with  each  other  in  humor- 
ing the  wishes  of  the  king,  who  encountered  only 
the  opposition  of  one  short  and  easily-suppressed 
insurrection  in  the  northern  counties. 

After  the  brief  minority  of  Edward  VI.,  Mary,  the 
daughter  of  the- divorced  Catharine,  succeeded  to  the 
throne,  and  yielding  to  the  common  royal  impulse,  —  to 
which,  indeed,  her  education  and  her  natural  sentiment 
for  her  mother's  memory  made  her  particularly  acces- 
sible, —  she  did  her  best  for  the  restoration  of  the  an- 
cient faith.  Nor,  indeed,  would,  perhaps,  Elizabeth 
have  been  disinclined  to  the  same  course,  had  not  her 
own  title  to  the  throne  been  involved  in  the  sustentation 
of  the  ecclesiastical  settlement  introduced  by  her  father. 
The  position  in  which  she  was  thus  placed,  as  head 
of  the  Protestant  opposition  to  the  Catholic  reaction, 
which  soon  began  to  assume  a  very  formidable 
aspect,  —  a  position  which  drew  down  upon  her  the 
excommunication  of  the  pope,  and  the  threatened 
invasion  of  Philip  II.,  and  exposed  her  constantly  to  a 
Catholic  insurrection  at  home,  —  obliged  her  to  court 
the  favor  of  her  subjects,  by  whom,  especially  the 
burgess  part  of  them,  she  was  enthusiastically  sup- 
ported ;  and  also  made  it  wholly  impossible  for  her 
to  discontinue  or  supersede  the  Parliament,  with  how- 
ever little  ceremony  she  might  be  accustomed  oc- 
casionally to  treat  it. 

But   the   semi-reformed  church  of  England,  while 

upheld  by  the  queen  against  the  Papists  on  the  one 

hand,  began  to  be  assailed  on  the  other,  in  an  alarming 

manner,  by  the  ultra  reformers,  known  as  "  Puritans," 

16 


182  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

against  whom  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  enact 
persecuting  laws  no  less  than  a'gainst  the  Catholics. 
This  quarrel  of  the  Puritans  against  the  church  of 
England  was  precisely  the  old  quarrel  of  Luther  and 
Calvin  against  the  church  of  Rome.  Under  James  I., 
—  whom  the  gunpowder  plot  and  the  necessities  of 
his  position,  as  well  as  a  taste  for  dogmatical  the- 
ology much  like  that  of  Henry  VIIL,  secured,  though 
a  very  high  churchman,  on  the  Protestant  side,  —  the 
church  of  England,  growing  somewhat  bolder  than 
it  had  been  in  Henry's  and  Elizabeth's  time,  began  to 
claim  to  be  the  very  old  Catholic  church,  deriving  its 
authority  not  from  the  parliamentary  establishment, 
but  by  uninterrupted  tradition  from  the  apostles  ; 
if  not  that  very  Papal  church  which  the  more  ardent 
reformers  were  accustomed  to  denounce  as  the  scarlet 
woman  of  the  Apocalypse,  yet  one  to  their  eyes  hardly 
less  exceptionable.  New  pretensions  like  these  gave, 
of  course,  a  new  zeal  to  the  Puritan  opposition, 
which  embraced  indiscriminately,  at  this  early  day, 
all  the  non- Catholic  enemies  of  the  church  of  Eng- 
land, both  those  who  desired  merely  a  further  ref- 
ormation, after  the  Presbyterian  model  of  Geneva 
and  Scotland,  those  who  afterwards  took  the  name 
of  Independents,  and  even  such  few  Freethinkers  as 
yet  there  were  in  England. 

Simultaneously  with  this  growth  of  Puritan  op- 
position, and  indeed  in  a  considerable  measure  pro- 
ductive of  it,  had  been  the  great  increase  of  London 
in  population  and  wealth;  that  city,  much  to  the 
terror  of  the  ruling  powers,  who  desired  anxiously  to 
limit  its  increase,  having  risen,  during  a  century  and 
a  half  of  internal  peace  and  freedom  from  taxation, 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.        183 

to  be  one  of  the  chief  commercial  marts  of  Europe ; 
other  commercial  and  manufacturing  towns,  indeed 
the  whole  kingdom,  having  shared  also  in  this  grow- 
ing prosperity.  Hence  an  increasing  spirit  and 
courage,  on  the  part  of  the  Commons,  and  the  re- 
sistance which  Charles  I.  encountered  when,  unsus- 
tained  by  a  standing  army,  he  attempted  to  do,  what 
was  done  by  almost  all  the  kings  his  contemporaries, 
and  what  had  occasionally  been  done  by  the  more 
vigorous  of  his  predecessors  on  the  English  throne, 
viz.,  to  levy  money  on  his  subjects  by  his  own  mere 
authority. 

In  the  civil  war  that  ensued,  the  clergy,  the  peers, 
and  the  old  feudal  landed  gentry  sided  with  the  king 
against  the  Puritans,  the  citizens,  and  the  small  pro- 
prietors, who  had  invested  in  land  the  gains  of  trade, 
emphatically  a  burgher  party  —  for  as  to  the  great 
mass  of  the  cultivators  of  the  soil,  so  far  as  opinion 
went,  they  took  no  side  whatever,  merely  following  as 
their  landlords  led. 

The  king  and  his  party  were  beaten,  the  war  being 
sustained  against  them  chiefly  by  the  efforts  of  the 
city  of  London.  Cromwell,  by  means  of  his  superior 
sagacity,  activity,  courage,  temper,  and  warlike  and 
political  skill,  largely  aided  by  his  mystical  influence 
over  the  Independents,  —  for  he  was  saint  and 
preacher  as  well  as  statesman  and  soldier,  —  secured 
the  command  of  the  parliamentary  troops,  and,  by 
the  aid  of  their  swords,  raised  himself  to  supreme 
power.  The  rise  of  this  brewer  over  the  dead  body 
of  the  executed  king,  and  the  heads  of  all  the  old 
nobility,  to  be  "  Lord  Protector  of  the  liberties  of 
England,"  marks  decisively  the  commencement  of 


184  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

that  which  we  have  designated  as  the  Age  of  the 
Burghers. 

After  the  death  of  Cromwell,  the  influence  of  tra- 
ditionary respect  so  far  revived  as  to  reestablish  the 
monarchy,  and  the  nobles  and  the  bishops  along  with 
it.  The  Independents  were  suppressed  with  unrelent- 
ing severity,  and  the  freedom  of  the  press  and  the 
liberty  of  worship,  which  Cromwell  had  tolerated, 
were  no  longer  allowed.  Charles  II.  and  his  brother 
James  after  him,  supported  by  the  church  and  the 
feudal  gentry,  were  suffered  to  go  great  lengths  in  the 
reestablishment  of  monarchical  authority.  But,  when 
James  undertook  to  claim  tolerance  and  equality  for 
the  Catholic  faith,  which  he  had  embraced,  —  a  toler- 
ation doubtless  intended  to  pave  the  way  for  Catholic 
restoration,  —  that  very  church  of  England,  which, 
as  against  Roundheads  and  Puritans,  had  preached 
passive  obedience  for  thirty  years,  abandoned  him, 
allowing  the  Prince  of  Orange  to  take  possession 
of  the  throne.  The  partisans  of  this  new  parlia- 
mentary king,  as  an  offset  to  the  hereditary  claims  of 
James  II. ,  sought  aid  from  the  late  depressed  dis- 
senters by  establishing  the  toleration  of  all  Protes- 
tant sects,  hitherto  unknown,  except  in  Holland,  and 
in  England  during  Cromwell's  protectorate,  but  which 
now  became  the  public  law  of  Britain ;  thus,  by  fur- 
ther dividing  it,  still  further  weakening  the  mystical 
political  power. 

From  the  era  of  the  restoration  it  had  begun  to  be 
seen  that  the  control  of  English  affairs  rested  with 
those  who  could  control  a  majority  of  the  House  of 
Commons  —  a  thing  made  evident  enough,  not  merely 
by  the  parliamentary  title  conferred  on  William  of 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       185 

Orange,  but  by  the  subsequent  repudiation  of  the 
entire  Stuart  family,  and  the  substitution  of  that  of 
Hanover  instead.  As  this  preponderance  of  the 
House  of  Commons  —  which  took  care  to  vote 
neither  money  nor  soldiers,  except  from  year  to  year, 
thus  keeping  the  executive  at  their  mercy  —  became 
more  and  more  apparent,  no  means  were  left  untried 
to  secure  votes  in  that  body.  The  elections  in  the 
counties  —  in  which  freeholders  only  voted  —  had 
always  been  determined,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent, 
by  a  few  great  landholders,  who  now  made  the  most 
strenuous  efforts  to  increase  their  influence  in  this 
respect.  They  demanded  the  votes  of  their  tenants 
as  part  of  the  consideration  of  occupancy,  just  as  in 
feudal  times  they  had  demanded  their  military 
services ;  and  in  this  way  the  sons  or  other  relations 
of  many  peers  sat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  while 
the  family  was  at  the  same  time  represented  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  Nor  did  this  sort  of  influence  by 
any  means  stop  here.  Many  of  the  old  boroughs, 
which  had  obtained  by  usage  the  right  of  sending 
members  to  Parliament,  had  always  been  inconsider- 
able ;  many  others  had  fallen  to  decay.  The  lands 
and  houses  of  these  boroughs  were  bought  up,  and  a 
controlling  influence  over  them  was  thus  established 
by  a  few  rich  men  ;  so  that,  in  process  of  time,  it 
came  to  pass  that  a  majority  of  the  House  of 
Commons  was  nominated  by  about  a  hundred  and 
fifty  peers,  or  very  rich  commoners  preparing  to  be- 
come peers  —  a  body  aptly  enough  designated  as  the 
"  oligarchy  of  borough-mongers."  That  moneyed  in- 
fluence, indeed,  which  had  turned  the  middle  age 
municipalities  into  close  corporations,  was  now  at 
16* 


186  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

full  work  in  the  realm  of  England.  Even  of  the 
nominally  independent  seats,  a  great  many  were  car- 
ried by  the  grossest  bribery ;  the  great  political  right 
of  voting  for  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  be- 
came a  regular  article  of  merchandise ;  so  that  wealth 
tended  rapidly  to  become  the  sole  source  of  power, 
to  which  hereditary  respect,  mystical  influence,  even 
sagacity,  knowledge,  courage,  eloquence,  and  virtue, 
were  but  mere  secondary  supporters.  And,  as  might 
be  expected  under  such  circumstances,  to  facilitate 
the  accumulation  of  wealth  by  a  few,  at  the  expense 
as  well  of  the  mass  of  the  people  as  of  foreign 
nations,  became  almost  the  sole  object  of  the 
policy  of  government,  of  which  "  trade "  was  the 
great  idol,  for  the  promotion  of  which  both  diplo- 
macy and  war  were  alike  resorted  to.  The  little 
knot  of  immensely  rich  men  who  thus  gradually  en- 
grossed the  control  of  the  British  government,  —  a 
vast  power  which  they  wielded,  or  strove  to  wield, 
so  as  still  further  to  increase  their  own  overgrown 
wealth,  —  had  they  been  able  to  agree  among  them- 
selves, might,  and  probably  would,  presently  have 
established  a  despotism  as  narrow,  as  suspicious,  as 
dark  as  that  of  the  Venetian  aristocracy,  which  had 
much  of  a  similar  origin.  But,  fortunately,  in  com- 
mon with  the  voters,  whose  political  influence  they 
sought  to  purchase  up,  the  "  borough-mongers  "  were 
themselves  divided  into  two  factions,  entertaining  a 
traditionary  hatred  of  each  other ;  the  one  consisting 
of  the  Whigs,  the  descendants  of  the  Roundheads, 
who  had  brought  Charles  I.  to  the  block,  and  who 
had,  to  a  great  extent, —  so  far  at  least  as  the  monarch 
and  the  church  of  England  were  concerned,  —  thrown 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       187 

off  the  influence  of  hereditary  respect  and  mystical 
ideas ;  the  others  the  descendants  of  the  Cavaliers, 
who  still  felt  to  a  considerable  degree  those  influences, 
evinced  in  a  blind  attachment  to  the  church  (chiefly 
exhibited  in  the  hatred  of  all  dissenters  from  it)  and 
a  sentiment  of  loyalty  towards  the  exiled  Stuart  fam- 
ily, presently  transferred  (length  of  possession,  even 
in  their  eyes,  growing  into  right)  to  the  young  king, 
George  III. 

The  "  borough-mongers  "  might  perhaps  have  recon- 
ciled these  differences,  had  they  been  the  only  parties 
concerned ;  but,  fortunately,  their  power  was  a  good 
deal  limited  by  the  continued  existence,  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  of  a  minority  of  independent  members 
—  the  representatives  of  the  great  towns,  —  such  of 
them  as  were  of  antiquity  enough  to  have  members 
at  all,  —  and  of  such  of  the  counties  as  had  not  yet 
fallen  under  the  exclusive  control  of  some  great  fam- 
ily. To  enable  either  of  the  factions  into  which  the 
"  borough-mongers "  were  divided  to  go  on  with  the 
government,  it  was  necessary  to  secure  the  aid  and 
support  of  a  considerable  portion  of  these  independent 
members,  who,  though  they  were  often  privately  for 
sale,  were  yet  obliged,  as  the  price  of  their  seats,  to 
affect  publicly,  whether  they  felt  it  or  not,  a  certain 
sympathy  with  the  dominant  ideas  of  their  constitu- 
ents —  a  necessity  which  extended  also  to  those  bor- 
ough-mongering  parliamentary  leaders  who  courted 
their  votes. 

Meanwhile,  the  faction  out  of  power,  whichsoever 
it  might  be,  —  and  in  the  interval  from  the  accession 
of  the  house  of  Hanover  to  that  of  George  III.,  (1714- 
1760,)  the  Tories  were  in  this  predicament,  —  felt  the 


* 
188  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

necessity  of  vindicating  for  themselves  —  and,  whether 
willingly  or  not,  they  did  it,  at  the  same  time,  for  the 
mass  of  the  people  —  freedom  from  arbitrary  arrests 
and  imprisonment,  the  trial  by  jury  in  criminal  cases, 
the  liberty  of  speech,  the  liberty  of  the  press,  of  peti- 
tion, and  of  public  assemblies,  and,  within  certain 
limits,  the  liberty  of  worship ;  and  it  is  these  inesti- 
mable rights  and  privileges  which  make  up  that  which 
is  so  proudly  denominated  English  liberty  —  a  liberty 
not  of  self-government,  but,  what  comes  next  to  it, 
of  remonstrance  and  complaint  against  the  acts  of  the 
government. 

The  Tories,  it  is  to  be  observed,  as  they  consisted 
almost  entirely  of  landholders,  formed  what  was  called 
the  landed  interest.  The  Whigs,  though  there  were 
many  great  landholders  among  them,  assumed  the 
patronage  of,  kept  up  an  intimate  connection  with, 
and  were  strongly  supported  by  the  merchants,  man- 
ufacturers, and  bankers,  who  constituted  what  was 
called  the  moneyed  interest  —  from  which  class,  in- 
deed, a  large  part  of  the  Whig  nobility  and  gentry 
were,  at  least  on  one  side  of  their  pedigree,  descended, 
however,  on  the  other,  they  might  trace  themselves 
back  to  some  old  feudal  noble. 

While  in  Britain,  —  and  the  same  thing  occurred 
in  Holland,  —  during  the  first  century  of  our  burgher 
age,  (1650-1750,)  the  burgher  spirit  of  the  accumula- 
tion of  wealth  by  trade  and  manufactures  continued 
to  advance,  elevating  accumulated  wealth  into  the 
great  leading  element  of  power,  a  like,  though  far 
inferior,  development  of  the  same  spirit  took  place  on 
the  continent.  But  of  this  the  as  yet  only  apparent 
political  effect  was,  still  further  to  increase  the  power 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       189 

of  the  kings  by  putting,  through  the  unrestricted 
right  of  taxation  which  they  had  assumed,  new  pe- 
cuniary resources  into  their  hands ;  to  which  they 
even  added  the  practice  of  funded  debts  first  intro- 
duced by  Holland  and  England  —  a  practice,  however, 
which  tended  to  throw  them  directly  into  the  power 
of  the  burgher  moneyed  class. 

Meanwhile,  that  influence  of  mystical  ideas  and  of 
traditional  respect  on  which  rested  the  social  and  po- 
litical position  of  the  nobles  and  the  clergy  continued 
from  day  to  day  to  decline.  As  it  had  happened  at 
Athens,  and  afterwards  at  Florence  and  in  the  other 
Italian  republics,  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  not  by 
plunder,  but  by  industry,  gave  rise  to  intelligent  and 
thoughtful  leisure.  The  spirit  was  again  born  of 
independent  inquiry,  scorning  to  transmit  a  merely 
traditionary  science.  Bacon  and  Hobbes  in  England, 
and  Galileo  and  Des  Cartes  on  the  continent,  became 
the  fathers  of  modern  freethinking,  followed  up  by 
the  learned,  witty,  and  ingenious  Bayle,  who,  how- 
ever, instead  of  attempting,  like  Hobbes  and  Des 
Cartes,  to  establish  any  theory  of  his  own,  contented 
himself  with  that  critical  examination  into  the  foun- 
dation of  existing  opinions,  and  that  exposure  of  the 
logical  inconsistency  of  those  opinions,  which  is  a 
necessary  precedent  to  true  science.* 

The  English  sect  of  Freethinkers  divided  into  two 
schools,  —  the  one  semi-mystic,  and  the  other  philo- 
sophic, —  deriving  their  origin,  respectively,  from  Lord 
Herbert  of  Cherbury,  and  from  Hobbes.  Some  of 

*  u  If  a  man  will  begin  in  certainties,  he  shall  e»d  in  doubts ;  but  if  he 
will  be  content  to  begin  with  doubts,  he  shall  end  in  certainties."  — 
BACON,  Advancement  of  Learning,  Book  I. 


190  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

its  members,  like  Locke  and  Middleton,  though  they 
went  the  whole  length  in  premises,  were  yet  so  much 
under  the  influence  of  prevailing  ideas,  or  prudential 
considerations,  as  to  go,  at  least  on  certain  topics,  but 
little  way  in  conclusions.  This  was  the  sect  distin- 
guished as  Latitudinarians.  They  fully  admitted  the 
supernatural  origin  of  the  Christian  church,  but,  at 
the  same  time,  strenuously  resisted  all  present  mys- 
tical pretensions  to  authority ;  reducing  the  determi- 
nation of  the  character  of  Christianity  to  a  purely 
historical  and  documentary  question,  and  the  doctrine 
itself  to  a  mere  code  of  morals.  In  their  steps  fol- 
lowed the  whole  school  of  Presbyterian  and  Calvin- 
istic  divines,  (as  well  the  low  church,  or  Presbyterian 
section  of  the  church  of  England,  as  most  of  the  Ger- 
man Lutherans  and  Swiss  and  Dutch  Calvinists,)  the 
whole  body  of  whom,  pastors  and  people,  including 
the  body  of  the  burgher  class,  throughout  Europe, 
verged  fast  towards  rationalism ;  being  separated  from 
the  more  advanced  Freethinkers  only  by  an  uncertain 
and  almost  impercepible  partition. 

Of  this  more  advanced  section,  some,  like  Boling- 
broke,  following  out  the  ideas  of  Herbert,  proposed, 
as  a  substitute  for  Christianity,  a  system  of  their 
own,  which  acquired  the  name  of  Deism ;  the  adher- 
ents of  which,  it  may  be  observed,  —  and  Voltaire, 
Robespierre,  and  Thomas  Paine  may  serve  as  in- 
stances,—  in  point  of  vehement  bigotry  and  bitter 
intolerance,  whether  of  those  who  believed  more  or 
those  who  believed  less  than  themselves,  did  not  fall 
a  whit  behind  any  of  the  religious  sects.  Others, 
like  Hume,  folfbwing  up  the  doctrines  of  Hobbes 
and  Locke,  ventured,  obscurely  indeed,  and  only  by 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       191 

implication,  to  call  in  question   the  entire   mystical 
hypothesis. 

This  freethinking  disposition  —  which,  beginning 
with  the  denial  of  witchcraft,  and  of  the  power  of 
the  devil,  seemed  likely  to  end,  as  Baxter  and  Cotton 
Mather  had  foretold,  in  the  denial  of  the  providence, 
and,  what  seemed  to  them  almost,  if  not  quite,  essen- 
tial to  the  being,  the  personality,  of  God  —  naturally 
aroused  a  strong  spirit  of  resistance  on  the  part  of  all 
the  orthodox  divines,  who  called  loudly  on  the  civil 
power  to  interfere  for  the  support  of  religion,  on  the 
ground,  among  others,  that  Christianity  was  part  of 
the  law  of  the  land  —  in  other  words,  one  of  those 
vested  rights,  at  least  as  to  the  power  and  property 
possessed  under  it,  which  the  civil  law  recognized, 
and  would  sustain.  Even  a  large  part  of  the  Lat- 
itudinarian  divines  joined  also  in  this  cry,  assuming 
the  position  that  religious  belief  is  the  only  solid 
support  of  morals  and  government  —  the  only  thing 
that  can  keep  the  depressed  and  impoverished  masses 
from  rising  in  their  fury,  and,  without  regard  to 
property  or  vested  rights,  completely  overturning  the 
existing  system  of  things.  To  this  appeal  the  civil 
powers  responded,  though  not  with  any  great  energy, 
as  being  themselves  deeply  infected  with  those  very 
heresies  which  they  were  called  upon  to  suppress. 
Yet  a  certain  disguise  and  reserve  were  still  necessary 
in  the  expression  of  opinions ;  imprisonment,  fines, 
the  pillory,  and  outlawry  being  substituted,  in  the 
case  of  less  cautious  .offenders,  in  place  of  the  gibbet 
and  the  stake  of  two  hundred  years  before  ;  the  burn- 
ing of  heretics  being  now  every  where  discontinued, 
except  occasionally  in  the  Spanish  dominions. 


192  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

An  interference  of  the  civil  power,  so  feeble  and 
inefficient,  served  but  as  water  to  the  fire,  which  burned 
all  the  brighter  in  consequence.  The  only  really  for- 
midable opposition  to  the  growth  and  spread  of  free- 
thinking  came  from  quite  another  quarter.  In  the 
world  of  ideas,  as  in  the  physical  world,  every  power- 
ful impulse  forward  inevitably  produces  a  correspond- 
ing backward  eddy,  which  finally  becomes,  or  may 
become,  even  a  powerful  current  of  reaction.  It  had 
been  so  in  the  case  of  the  Protestant  reformation, 
which  encountered,  in  the  reactionary  movement  of 
Loyola  and  his  Jesuits,  an  opposition  even  more 
formidable  than  that  of  the  monarchical  power.  A 
similar  reaction  against  the  Freethinkers  commenced 
in  England  with  the  preaching  of  Wesley  and  White- 
field,  who  revived,  in  a  somewhat  modified  shape,  the 
decaying  notions  of  the  Puritans  and  Independents; 
but  with  this  important  difference,  that,  while  Calvin- 
ism and  Puritanism  had  been  progressive,  levelling, 
and  destructive,  Methodism  was  retrogressive,  con- 
structive, and  reedifying.  It  is  not,  however,  in  the 
nature  of  any  vibration,  where  the  impulse  is  merely 
reactionary,  quite  to  return  to  the  point  whence  the 
original  movement  commenced  ;  and  though,  in  ref- 
erence to  the  Freethinkers,  the  Methodist  revival  was 
undoubtedly  retrograde,  in  relation  to  the  views  held 
by  the  early  reformers,  and  by  the  great  mass  of  the 
Puritans,  and  embodied  into  so  many  national  and 
sectarian  creeds,  it  must  be  regarded  as  decidedly 
progressive. 

According  to  the  view  of  human  nature  originally 
promulgated  by  Saint  Augustine  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  fifth  century,  revived  by  Luther,  ex- 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       193 

pounded  by  Calvin,  and  made  the  basis  of  the  Prot- 
estant creeds,  mankind  consists  of  two  orders,  sep- 
arated by  the  widest  and  most  impassable  barriers. 
The  great  body  of  the  human  race,  destitute  of  any 
free  will,  and  capable  only  of  evil,  are  ordained  by 
the  divine  decrees  "to  the  praise,"  as  the  Savoy 
confession  expressed  it,  "of  God's  glorious  justice" 
to  eternal  wrath  and  dishonor,  as  well  on  account  of 
their  corrupted  nature  inherited  from  Adam  as  of  the 
particular  and  individual  sins  to  which  that  corrupted 
nature  impels  them.  From  among  these  miserable 
heirs  of  sin  and  wretchedness  a  few,  however,  have 
been  selected,  not  from  any  foresight  of  faith  and 
good  works  on  their  part,  but  out  of  God's  pure  favor, 
and  "  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  grace ; "  and,  hav- 
ing thus  been  predestinated,  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world,  to  everlasting  glory,  these  elected  few,  at 
some  time  in  the  course  of  their  mortal  career,  are 
certain  to  be  endowed  with  free-will  and  a  disposition 
and  capacity  for  goodness ;  after  which  it  becomes 
impossible  for  them,  much  as  they  may  backslide, 
utterly  to  fall  away. 

However  legitimate  an  inference  this  doctrine  may 
appear  to  be  from  the  mystical  hypothesis ;  however 
useful  it  might  have  been  towards  battering  down  the 
pretensions  to  traditionary  authority  set  up  by  the 
Papal  and  English  churches,  —  yet  not  only  did  it 
shock  the  growing  force  of  the  sentiment  of  benevo- 
lence, but,  in  its  mockery  of  all  human  effort,  and  in 
making  God  himself  the  author  and  ordainer  of  sin, 
(however  it  might  be  attempted  to  evade  that  conse- 
quence,) it  placed  formidable  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
17 


194  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

those  who  would  build  up  a  new  church  to  be  based 
upon  faith,  repentance,  and  good  works. 

Hence  the  revivalists  either  rejected  this  view  of 
human  nature  with  indignation,  adopting  without 
reserve,  like  Wesley,  the  semi-mystic  theory  of  the 
Arminians  and  the  Jesuits,  thus  striking  a  serious 
blow  at  the  mystic  hypothesis ;  or,  in  their  ingenious 
struggles,  as  in  the  case  of  Edwards,  to  maintain  the 
purely  mystical  view,  they  did  but  prepare  the  way 
for  still  wider  departures  from  it.  Whatever  the  mer- 
its of  this  theory  of  the  Calvinists  in  vindicating  the 
freedom  of  the  individual,  at  least  of  a  limited  num- 
ber of  elected  individuals,  against  the  centralizing  and 
monarchical  claims  set  up  by  the  Papal,  the  English, 
and  even  the  Presbyterian  churches,  yet  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  conceive  of  any  view  of  human  nature 
more  essentially  aristocratic  and  narrow,  more  thor- 
oughly in  the  spirit  of  caste.  It  is,  indeed,  this  very 
character  of  it  that  so  warmly  recommends  it  to  a 
certain  kind  of  tempers,  and  that  made  it  so  suitable 
to  the  times  in  which  it  flourished.  The  Method- 
istical  view,  on  the  other  hand,  by  vindicating  free 
will  and  the  chance  of  salvation  as  appertaining  to 
the  whole  human  family,  and  still  more  by  its  doc- 
trine of  falling  from  grace  as  a  danger  to  which  even 
the  best  are  exposed,  went  a  great  way  to  break  down 
that  impassable  barrier  which  Calvinism  had  erected 
between  its  two  supposed  orders  of  the  elect  and  the 
reprobated;  and,  in  comparison  with  that  stern  and 
haughty  creed,  it  might  well  claim  a  democratical 
character.  And  yet,  in  establishing  for  his  special  ad- 
herents a  system  of  church  government,  Wesley  delib- 
erately passed  by  all  those  republican,  and,  in  the  case 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       195 

of  the  Independents  and  Baptists,  democratic  forms, 
which  the  ultra  supporters  of  the  Calvinistic  view 
had  introduced ;  and,  by  vesting  the  whole  authority 
in  conferences  composed  entirely  of  the  clergy,  in 
the  ordination  and  displacement  of  whom,  and  their 
appointment  to  particular  charges,  the  clergy  solely 
participated,  he  approached  very  nearly  to  the  secular 
principle  of  close,  self-perpetuating  corporations  —  a 
form  of  government  which  might,  perhaps,  have  ex- 
isted in  the  early  Christian  church  prior  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  patriarchal  and  papal  authority,  but 
which  appears,  nevertheless,  so  far  as  the  obscurity  of 
the  question  allows  one  to  judge,  to  have  been  a  devi- 
ation from  primitive  usage,  and  a  usurpation  upon  the 
rights  of  the  body  of  the  Christian  people. 

The  first  converts,  in  this  revival  of  old  ideas,  —  for 
such,  at  its  commencement,  Methodism  appeared  ex- 
clusively to  be,  —  were  obtained,  as  commonly  hap- 
pens in  such  cases,  from  among  the  least  cultivated 
portions  of  society.  But,  ultimately,  spreading  among 
the  higher  ranks,  it  made  a  serious  impression  on  the 
church  of  England,  superseding  the  latitudinarianism 
of  the  Low  Church  party,  which,  at  length,  took  to  it- 
self the  new  name  of  Evangelical.  It  also  gained  pos- 
session of  the  Presbyterian  church  of  Scotland ;  and, 
besides  the  new  Methodist  church  founded  by  Wesley, 
who  had  a  great  talent  for  ruling,  it  greatly  increased 
the  numbers  and  social  weight  of  the  Baptist  and 
Congregational  dissenters.  Even  the  modern  party 
of  the  Puseyites,  so  far  as  they  differ  from  the  old 
High  Churchmen,  owe  their  origin  to  this  same 
Methodistical  impulse. 

Strong  indications  simultaneously  appeared  in  Ger- 


196  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

many  of  a  similar  reaction.  Wesley  and  Whitefield 
had  their  counterparts  in  Count  Zinzendorf  and  others. 
But,  as  toleration  of  religious  worship  other  than  that 
established  by  the  state  formed  no  part  of  the  conti- 
nental system,  the  German  Pietists  were  cut  off  from 
the  great  resource  of  field  preaching,  and  could  only 
partially  propagate  their  opinions  through  such  few 
regular  pulpits  as  they  could  gain  access  to,  and  by 
the  aid  of  the  press,  which,  however,  was  subjected  to 
great  shackles. 

In  France,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  reaction  at 
all;  while,  under  the  auspices  of  Voltaire,  Rousseau, 
and  the  encyclopedists,  —  writers  in  whom  eloquence, 
sagacity,  and  the  knowledge  of  reflection,  as  apart 
from  mere  pedantry  and  book  learning,  formed  a 
union  unknown  before  since  the  days  of  classical 
antiquity,  —  the  deistical  system  of  freethinking  ob- 
tained, among  all  the  reading  class,  a  very  decided 
preponderance.  These  new  ideas  spread  even  into 
Spain  ;  and  their  first  political  fruits  were  presently 
seen  in  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  from  France, 
Spain,  and  Portugal,  speedily  followed  by  the  abo- 
lition of  that  order.  But  it  was  not  solely,  nor,  at 
least  on  the  continent,  principally,  against  mystical 
ideas,  and  the  political  pretensions  of  the  clergy,  that 
the  batteries  of  the  Freethinkers  were  directed. 

The  introduction  into  England,  by.  the  Normans, 
of  the  doctrine  of  primogeniture,  in  a  stricter  sense 
than  was  usual  on  the  continent,  —  the  entire  landed 
property,  which,  in  those  times,  was  substantially  all 
the  property,  descending  to  the  eldest  son,  —  had 
been  attended  there  with  one  result,  hardly,  at  first 
thought,  to  have  been  expected  from  it.  The  old 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       197 

rights  and  special  privileges  of  the  feudal  nobles, 
instead  of  being  transmitted  by  inheritance,  as  on 
the  continent,  to  all  their  descendants,  became  strictly 
limited  to  a  hundred  or  two  peers,  who  composed  the 
House  of  Lords,  all  the  other  branches  of  those  fam- 
ilies, —  even  the  eldest  sons  of  the  highest  rank  of 
noblemen,  so  long  as  their  fathers  were  alive,  —  how- 
ever they  might  bear  titles  through  courtesy,  being,  in 
law,  commoners,  and  nothing  more.  Thus  the  doc- 
trine of  primogeniture  had  greatly  contributed  to  do 
away,  except  as  to  a  very  few  families,  the  distinction 
of  rank  as  between  the  old  feudal  nobility  and  the 
new  civic  gentry  of  burgher  origin.  It  is  true  that 
the  cadets  of  noble  families,  as  well  as  the  knights 
and  squires  who  represented  the  old  feudal  gentry, 
would,  and  did,  take  some  airs  to  themselves  on 
the  ground  of  a  pretended  superiority  of  blood. 
But,  in  political  rights,  they  enjoyed  no  preemi- 
nence ;  and  already,  in  Britain,  the  son  of  a  tinker, 
with  money  or  official  station,  might  claim  to  be, 
and  actually  was,  socially  and  politically,  a  much 
more  important  personage  than  the  son  of  an  earl 
without  them.  On  the  continent  it  was  not  so. 
The  distinction  of  caste  was  there  in  full  force.  It 
was  only  nobles  who  could  hold  commissions  in 
the  army,  or  could  fill  many  chief  official  stations ; 
even  all  the  benefices  of  the  church,  worth  having, 
were  chiefly  engrossed  by  them.  They  disdained  all 
industrious  employments  as  beneath  the  dignity  of 
their  blood ;  and  their  constantly-increasing  numbers 
had  to  be  provided  for  by  quartering  them,  in  some 
way,  on  the  industrious  classes. 

These  distinctions  were    most  bitterly  felt   by  the 
17* 


198  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

burgher  class,  which,  in  wealth,  intelligence,  and  every 
natural  element  of  power,  had  now  grown  to  be  the 
superiors  of  this  caste  of  nobles  ;  and  the  freethinking 
literati,  emanating,  as  they  chiefly  did,  from  the  burgher 
class,  and  writing  mainly  in  its  interest,  directed  the 
whole  weight  of  their  satire  and  their  argument,  their 
wit  and  their  learning,  against  distinctions,  which 
rested  now  for  their  sole  support  upon  mere  custom 
and  genealogical  tradition. 

/  As  an  offset  to  the  divine  right  of  kings,  —  the  fa- 
vorite theory  of  the  clergy,. —  to  the  right  of  blood 
and  descent  alleged  by  the  nobles,  to  the  right  of 
prescription,  or  of  property  in  power,  urged  by  the 
lawyers,  the  continental  writers  of  the  new  school, 
no  longer  Freethinkers  merely,  but  now  become  dog- 
matists, set  up  the  doctrine  of  "the  imprescriptable 
rights  of  man ;  "  and  they  also  started,  as  supplement- 
ary to-  that  doctrine,  the  metaphysical  theory  of  the 
natural  equality  of  men,  —  all  existing  inequalities 
being  ascribed  to  accidental  and  temporary  deviations 
from  the  true  law  of  nature, —  a  doctrine  fatal  enough, 
no  doubt,  to  the  pretensions  of  the  nobles,  but  giving 
also  a  logical  basis  to  all  those  anarchical  conse- 
quences already  pointed  out.^ 

Yet,  omitting  to  press  this  proclamation  of  equality 
to  its  strict  logical  conclusions,  and  viewing  it  such 
as  it  was,  in  fact,  merely  as  a  protest  against  dis- 
tinctions, of  which  the  original  and  natural  basis  had 
disappeared,  there  was  something  in  it  to  which  every 
noble  and  self-confident  soul  responded  ;  and  this 
new  doctrine  found  many  advocates,  even  in  the 
very  ranks  of  the  nobles  themselves  —  just  as  then* 
were  also  among  the  continental  clergy  many  who 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       199 

openly  laughed  at  the  pretensions  on  which  the 
clerical  power  was  based. 

Even  kings  —  though  their  pretensions,  too,  were 
assailed  in  common  with  those  of  the  clergy  and  the 
nobles  —  were  carried  away  by  this  new  burgher  phi- 
losophy, which,  in  striking  at  the  last  remaining 
feudal  privileges,  seemed,  indeed,  likely  to  leave  the 
monarchical  power  without  any  restraint.  It  was 
partly,  perhaps,  this  consideration  which  induced 
Frederic  the  Great  of  Prussia  to  become  a  talking 
disciple  of  this  school.  Joseph  II.  of  Austria  —  more 
enthusiastic,  if  not  more  sincere  —  undertook  to  carry 
its  doctrine  into  practice. 

In  addition  to  this  false  theory  of  absolute  natural 
equality,  there  were  other  not  less  grievous  defects  in 
the  new  philosophy  —  smacking,  indeed,  of  its  burgher 
origin,  smelling  a  little  too  strong  of  the  shop.  As  the 
men  of  the  world,  and  the  politicians  of  this  school, 
had  but  the  one  notion  of  money  as  ^the  sole  basis  of 
preeminence,  so  its  metaphysicians  were  induced  to 
reject  all  ideas  which  they  could  not  trace  distinctly  to 
some  external  sensible  prototype.  The  burgher  econo- 
mists and  politicians  believed  in  nothing  but  gold  and 
silver  —  the  burgher  metaphysicians  in  nothing  that 
could  not  be  seen,  heard,  handled,  smelt,  or  tasted.' 

Among  other  causes  which  promoted  the  accumu- 
lation of  wealth  in  Europe,  and  the  consequent  prog- 
ress and  development  of  the  burgher  spirit,  was  the  in- 
creasing commercial  importance  of  the  European  ultra- 
marine possessions,  especially  those  of  the  new  world. 

The  Spanish  ultramarine  possessions,  as  has  been 
already  remarked,  were  the  fruits  of  conquest  rather 
than  of  colonization  ;  and  the  same  thing  was,  in 


200  "  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

a  great  measure,  true  of  those  of  Portugal  also. 
Such  colonies  as  were  actually  founded  by  these 
two  nations  were  very  closely  modelled  after  the  state 
of  things  in  the  mother  country.  Negro  slaves, 
imported  from  Africa,  or  Indians  reduced  to  a  state 
of  servitude,  furnished  a  laboring  population  even 
more  oppressed  and  degraded  than  the  serfs  of  the 
feudal  age.  The  Catholic  church  was  transplanted 
full  blown  to  the  colonies,  and  was  endowed  with 
ample  possessions.  The  native  Spaniards  and  Por- 
tuguese, who  resorted  to  those  countries  in  pursuit 
of  fortune,  even  those  of  the  meanest  origin,  stood, 
towards  the  native-born  inhabitants,  not  even  ex- 
cluding those  of  European  descent,  in  the  relation  of 
a  superior  caste,  or  privileged  order  of  nobles,  con- 
stantly renewed  by  fresh  migration,  and  possessing 
a  monopoly  of  official  employment ;  while  the  courts 
of  law,  and  the  viceroyal  administrations,  faithfully 
enough  reflected  the  corresponding  departments  at 
home. 

To  the  French  colonies,  which  were,  indeed,  but 
feeble,  similar  observations  will  apply.  The  Dutch 
colonies  were  founded  and  governed  after  a  home 
model,  of  which  a  close  burgher  aristocracy  formed 
the  most  conspicuous  feature,  not,  however,  without 
the  intermixture  of  other  feudal  ingredients. 

Of  the  English  colonies,  particularly  of  those  which 
now  constitute  the  United  States  of  America,  the 
case  was  very  different.  If  we  except  a  limited  num- 
ber of  indented  servants,  who  soon,  however,  became 
freemen  and  freeholders,  on  a  par  with  the  rest,  the 
settlers  by  whom  these  colonies  were  founded  were 
almost  exclusively  from  the  burgher  class;  and  the 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       201 

governments  of  all  of  them  were  constructed  essen- 
tially upon  municipal  ideas  —  ideas  not  of  the  de- 
generate close  corporation  sort,  but  such  as  had  pre- 
vailed in  the  feudal  age  municipalities  in  the  days  of 
their  vigor  and  freedom.  All  of  these  English  colonies 
had  Houses  of  Assembly,  in  the  election  of  whose 
members  all  the  freemen  voted,  and  without  whose 
consent  no  laws  could  be  made  nor  taxes  levied. 
They  enjoyed,  too,  the  inestimable  political  privilege 
of  trial  by  jury  —  and  in  the  greater  perfection  as  the 
judges  were  generally  not  lawyers,  and  therefore  not 
in  a  position  to  undertake  to  dictate  either  as  to  law 
or  facts.  There  was  no  order  of  nobility,  and  the 
kingly  power  was  very  faintly  represented  by  the 
royal  or  proprietary  governors  and  councillors.  Two 
of  the  New  England  colonies  had  even  the  right  to 
elect  their  own  chief  magistrates.  It  is  true  that,  in 
the  older  colonies,  —  Rhode  Island  excepted,  —  an  es- 
tablished church  made  a  part  of  the  political  ma 
chinery ;  and  that,  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut, 
it  was  even  attempted  to  establish  a  democratic  the- 
ocracy —  none  but  "  church  members  "  being,  by  the 
earlier  constitutions  of  those  colonies,*  entitled  to  be 
freemen.  But  this  project,  after  fifty  years'  trial,  had 
to  be  abandoned.  A  small  pecuniary  qualification 
was  substituted ;  and  the  colonies  of  New  England,  as 

*  Though  this  is  stated  of  Connecticut  generally,  it  ought  in  strict- 
ness to  be  limited  to  the  old  New  Haven  colony.  The  Hartford  colony 
(and  the  same  was  true  of  the  Plymouth  colony,  afterwards  absorbed 
into  Massachusetts)  did  not  profess,  in  terms,  to  limit  citizenship  to 
church  members.  Their  practice,  however,  was  not  materially  different 
from  that  of  their  sister  colonies,  the  four  forming  together  the  New 
England  Confederated  Union,  of  which  theocratical  interests  were 
a  leading  object. 


202  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

well  as  those  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  were  obliged, 
by  repeated  orders  from  the  mother  country,  to  adopt 
the  policy  of  the  toleration  of  all  Protestant  sects  —  a 
principle  upon  which  some  of  the  younger  colonies, 
such  as  the  Jerseys,  the  Carolinas,  and  Pennsylvania, 
were  expressly  founded ;  Rhode  Island  having,  at  a 
still  earlier  day,  set  the  example,  which  Perm  imitated, 
of  leaving  public  religious  worship  and  training  entirely 
to  such  voluntary  organizations  as  might  choose  to  un- 
dertake it. 

But,  along  with  this  reproduction  in  America  of 
new  and  vigorous  shoots  from  the  old  municipal  ideas 
of  Europe,  a  noisome  weed  sprung  up,  —  one  which 
still  threatens  failure  to  the  whole  experiment,  —  the 
unfortunate  introduction  of  the  system  of  chattel 
slavery,  domestic  and  predial,  and  along  with  it  of  a 
spirit  of  caste  of  the  most  inveterate  sort. 

The  British  Parliament,  having  centred  in  itself 
the  whole  political  power  of  that  country,  naturally 
claimed  a  supremacy  over  the  colonies  similar  to  that 
originally  claimed  by  the  kings  of  England,  and 
actually  possessed  by  those  of  France  and  Spain, 
over  their  ultramarine  possessions.  And,  so  long  as 
this  supremacy  of  Parliament  was  confined  within 
those  limits  to  wnich  the  early  weakness  of  the 
colonies  had  obliged  them  to  submit,  —  that  is,  to 
the  regulation  of  trade  for  the  special  and  exclusive 
benefit  of  the  mother  country,  and  that,  too,  upon  a 
very  narrow  system,  —  whatever  heartburnings  it 
might  occasion,  and  however  it  might  be  evaded,  it 
was  not  openly  resisted,  nor  even  verbally  disputed. 
But  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  extend  it  beyond 
those  limits,  by  assuming  a  right  to  impose  taxes  on 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       203 

the  colonists  by  act  of  Parliament,  an  opposition  was 
made  similar  to  that  encountered  in  England  by 
Charles  I.,  when  he  attempted  to  levy  taxes  without 
the  consent  of  Parliament,  and  precisely  on  the  same 
ground  too,  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  rights  of 
Englishmen  —  the  fullest  participation  in  which  was 
claimed  by  the  colonists  —  to  be  compelled  to  pay 
taxes  in  the  levy  of  which  they  had  no  voice. 

In  place  of  the  aid  which  the  English  supporters 
of  municipal  ideas  had  derived,  in  their  contest  with 
Charles  L,  from  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  the 
Puritans  and  Independents,  the  colonial  opponents 
of  parliamentary  despotism  had  the  support  of  the 
new  philosophy ;  and  in  the  progress  of  the  dispute 
as  to  the  power  of  Parliament,  the  new  ideas  respect- 
ing the  natural  equality  of  man,  which  Rousseau  had 
so  eloquently  expounded,  gained  a  great  currency  in 
the  British  American  colonies,  and,  simultaneously 
with  the  declaration  of  American  independence,  be- 
came a  part  of  the  national  political  creed. 

The  American  revolution  extinguished,  in  the  late 
British  colonies,  the  royal  authority,  and  all  monarchi- 
cal ideas  along  with  it ;  and,  although  the  commence- 
ment of  the  mystical  reaction  had  been  felt  in  America, 
not  less  than  in  Great  Britain,  that  revolution  also 
deprived  the  clergy  in  the  southern  colonies  of  all 
political  weight,  and  even  somewhat  weakened  the 
clerical  influence  in  New  England.  But,  by  reason 
of  the  great  importance  attached  to  those  politico- 
legal  disputes  by  which  the  war  of  the  revolution 
had  been  preceded  ;  by  reason  of  the  many  doubtful 
constitutional  questions  to  which  the  new  forms 
of  government  gave  rise ;  and  especially  by  reason 


204:  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

of  the  enormous  fluctuations  of  property,  and  the 
complicated  indebtedness  occasioned  by  the  war,  the 
paper  money,  and  the  funding  system,  — the  lawyers 
were  multiplied  and  enriched;  and  gradually  obtain- 
ing a  monopoly  of  the  seats  on  the  judicial  bench, 
they  began  to  form  a  separate  order,  a  sort  of  nob! 
of  the  robe,  not  without  a  distinct  and  decided  social 
and  political  influence.  Apart  from  the  special  in- 
gredients of  slavery  and  the  influence  of  the  lawyers, 
as  the  new  governments  which  sprung  up  in  America 
were  modelled  —  the  general  government  as  well  as 
the  state  governments  —  almost  entirely  after  the 
colonial  system,  so  were  they  almost  exclusively 
municipal  in  their  character.  They  have,  indeed, 
given  a  thus  far  most  successful  instance  of  the 
application  to  a  large  extent  of  country  of  that  form 
of  government  originally  established  in  the  free  towns 
of  Europe,  which,  so  far  from  being  fit  for  small  com- 
munities only,  as  Montesquieu  and  many  others  had 
imagined,  has  been  found  to  operate  with  far  less 
friction  on  a  large  scale  than  a  small  one. 

Hume,  indeed,  had  the  sagacity  to  perceive  that 
the  republican  form  of  government  might  easily  be 
applied  to  almost  any  extent  of  country  —  an 
opinion  advanced  in  his  Essay  on  the  Idea  of  a 
Perfect  Commonwealth.  But,  among  many  less  acute 
European  writers,  the  opinion  of  Montesquieu  still 
remains  a  favorite  one,  that  republican  institutions 
are  only  adapted  to  poor  and  thinly-inhabited  coun- 
tries, and  that,  as  the  United  States  of  America 
become  rich  and  populous,  democracy  will  die  out, 
and  give  place  to  monarchy  and  aristocracy.  Upon 
this  point  it  is  only  necessary  here  to  observe,  that 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       205 

the  States  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode 
Island,  the  portion  of  the  Union  the  wealthiest  and 
the  most  thickly  populated,  —  points  in  which  few 
districts  of  Europe  stand  very  greatly  before  them, 
—  are,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  thoroughly 
democratic,  having  grown  so  just  in  proportion  as 
wealth  has  increased  and  population  multiplied  — 
a  phenomenon  not  peculiar  to  them,  but  one  of 
which  the  operation  may  be  traced  in  all  the  free 
states  of  the  American  Union. 

To  this  flattering  prospect  there  is,  however,  one 
painful  drawback.  The  unfortunate  introduction  of 
negro  slavery,  at  first  a  mere  excrescence  upon  the 
original  plan,  but  which  has  grown,  in  several  of  the 
southern  states,  both  new  and  old  ones,  to  be  the 
most  marked  feature  and  predominating  influence  in 
their  social  system,  has  introduced  into  that  portion 
of  the  American  Union,  and  indeed  into  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  national  government,  a  strange  and 
most  incongruous  mixture  of  the  republican  system 
of  equal  rights,  backed  by  the  metaphysical  theory 
of  the  natural  equality  of  man,  with  the  spirit  of  caste 
and  an  hereditary  aristocracy  of  birlh  and  race  —  a 
state  of  society  engendering  all  that  spirit  of  con- 
tempt for  mechanical,  and  especially  for  agricultural, 
industry ;  all  that  spirit  of  plunder  and  domineering 
insolence  and  cruelty  which  distinguished  the  re- 
publics of  ancient  times,  but  without  their  taste, 
eloquence,  and  artistical  and  warlike  renown  ;  and  at 
the  same  time  all  the  huckstering  trickery,  sharpness, 
and  meanness  of  the  modem  municipal  system,  with- 
out its  equality,  industry,  wealth,  and  comfort.  Nor 
can  any  man  yet  tell  what,  as  to  the  entire  American 
18 


206  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

Union,  the  result  is  to  be  of  this  most  discordant  and 
incongruous  mixture. 

The  successful  accomplishment  of  the  American 
revolution, — which  had  been  watched  from  Europe 
with  the  most  lively  interest,  —  by  giving  the  example 
of  the  establishment  of  a  purely  municipal  system  on 
a  large  scale,  tended  to  hasten  that  great  and  con- 
cluding catastrophe  of  our  commercial  era,  the  French 
revolution  —  a  revolution  still  in  progress  under  our 
very  eyes. 

That  revolution  was  made  entirely  by  the  burgher 
class,  and  their  converts  from  among  the  nobility  and 
clergy.  The  great  body  of  the  cultivators  of  the  soil, 
oppressed  by  taxes  and  feudal  executions,  and  sunk 
in  ignorance  and  superstition,  took  comparatively 
little  part  in  the  movement,  except  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  opportunity  afforded  by  it  to  shake  off  their 
feudal  burdens,  and  to  be  acknowledged  as  men  and 
citizens.  These  great  boons  they  obtained  in  the  very 
first  years  of  the  revolution,  and  with  these  they  re- 
mained content.  As  to  the  particular  form  of  the 
government,  whether  republican  or  otherwise,  or  who 
should  exercise  it,  that  was  a  matter  about  which  they 
concerned  themselves  very  little.  These  mere  ques- 
tions of  administration  they  left  to  be  settled  by  Paris 
and  the  armies. 

The  freethinking  philosophers,  who  had  been  the 
chief  authors  of  the  revolution,  and  who  were  the 
principal  leaders  in  it,  were  disposed  to  make  very 
thorough  work.  They  did  not,  like  what  are  called 
11  practical  men,"  incline  to  patch  up  and  remodel  an 
old  system,  in  their  view  radically  false.  The  first 
thing  necessary,  in  their  opinion,  was  to  pull  down  the 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       207 

whole  of  the  old  fabric  ;  and  that  which  the  National 
Assembly  omitted  to  do  in  this  respect  was  fully  car- 
ried out  by  the  National  Convention.  The  Girondin 
party  wished,  indeed,  to  preserve  the  distinction  of 
provinces,  and,  by  a  return  in  some  respects  to  the 
ideas  of  the  feudal  age,  to  decentralize  the  govern- 
ment, and  to  disperse  and  localize  authority  —  great 
boons  for  liberty,  could  that  system  have  been  adopted. 
But  the  danger  from  abroad  in  which  France  stood  at 
that  moment  —  the  crowned  heads  of  Europe  having 
taken  the  alarm  and  united  to  put  down  the  new 
republic  —  enabled  the  Jacobins,  the  thorough-going 
and  uncompromising  theorists,  with  Robespierre  at 
their  head,  to  carry  the  day ;  and,  by  means  of  their 
affiliated  clubs,  to  establish  that  "  reign  of  terror,"  the 
reign  of  the  republic,  "  one  and  indivisible,"  so  exe- 
crated in  history,  and  so  fatal  to  many  of  the  promi- 
nent actors  on  the  early  stage  of  the  revolution  — 
a  bloody  and  fearful  dictatorship,  which,  if  it  saved 
France,  for  the  time,  from  being  subjected  by  foreign 
armies,  has  also  deferred,  from  that  day  to  this,  the  es- 
tablishment there  of  an  internal  administration  making 
even  a  distant  approach  towards  what  is  entitled  to 
be  called  a  free  government. 

The  very  sweeping  redistribution  of  property  by  the 
sale  for  assign ats  of  the  forfeited  lands  of  the  crown, 
the  clergy,  and  emigrant  nobles,  and  the  new  distribu- 
tion of  military  honors  by  laying  open  the  highest 
commands  to  soldiers  in  the  ranks,  created,  indeed,  a 
body  embracing  by  far  the  larger  part  of  what  there 
was  in  France  of  activity,  courage,  intelligence,  spirit, 
and  enterprise,  bound  by  the  strongest  interests  to 
support  and  uphold  the  revolution  at  all  hazards.  But 


208  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

out  of  France,  the  reaction  occasioned  by  the  reign 
of  terror  was  almost  as  complete  as  it  was  sudden. 
It  was  in  vain  to  say  that  the  introducers  of  the  sys- 
tem of  terror  were  not  any  of  the  philosophers,  nor 
of  their  proselytes  —  not  the  "virtuous  and  incorrup- 
tible "  Robespierre,  who  had  formerly  refused  the 
place  of  judge  rather  than  be  implicated  in  the  shed- 
ding of  human  blood,  but  the  half-insane  Marat,  and 
the  luxurious,  corrupt,  and  unscrupulous  Danton,  who 
thought  of  nothing  except  power  and  riches  for  himself, 
however  it  has  suited  some  "  hero  worshippers "  to 
make  him  a  demigod,  while,  at  the  same  time,  they 
spit  venom  at  the  "  sea-green  "  Robespierre.  It  is  in 
vain  to  say,  as  it  has  been  since  said,  that  the  system 
of  terror  was,  after  all,  no  new  invention,  only  the 
usual  and  established  method,  carried  out  a  little  more 
vigorously  than  common,  by  which  authority,  ever 
since  the  world  began,  has  made  itself  respected,  and 
that  the  atrocities  so  much  blazoned,  and  made  such 
a  scarecrow  of,  will  be  found,  upon  any  fair  feompari- 
son,  to  fall  short  of  those  committed  within  the  last 
sixty  years  by  each  and  every  of  the  leading  "  legiti- 
mate" governments  of  Europe  —  in  Ireland,  India, 
China,  Italy,  Poland,  Algiers,  Circassia,  and  Hungary. 
It  is  in  vain  to  suggest  that  these  atrocities  were,  in 
fact,  acts  of  war,  not  committed  in  the  ordinary  course 
of 'administration,  but  by  reason  of  the  alarm  which 
threatened  attack  inspired,  and  as  measures  of  self- 
defence  against  the  cooperation,  for  the  reestablish- 
ment  of  the  old  despotism,  of  internal  traitors  with 
external  enemies.  It  is  in  vain  to  add  that  all  revo- 
lutionary governments,  —  even  those  whose  object  it 
is  to  establish  the  liberties  of  the  people,  —  so  long  as 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       209 

their  existence  is  threatened  by  hostilities  external  or 
internal,  are  obliged  to  convert  themselves  into  dicta- 
torships, and  to  venture,  for  the  time  being,  on  acts 
of  authority  vastly  more  arbitrary  than  those  which 
had  provoked  the  revolution :  compare,  for  instance, 
the  British  tax  on  tea  with  Washington's  forcible 
seizure,  under  authority  of  Congress,  of  provisions  for 
his  army,  paying  for  them  in  congressional  paper 
money  not  worth  thirty  cents  on  the  dollar,  and  the 
denunciations  levelled  by  the  Congress  and  its  agents 
against  those  who  refused  to  take  this  depreciated  and 
depreciating  paper  at  its  par  value.  All  these  things 
might  be  ;  yet  they  only  proved,  at  the  most,  that  the 
French  revolution  was  not,  after  all,  so  very  different 
from  other  revolutions,  nor  the  leaders  in  it  so  much 
worse  than  other  politicians  and  fierce  contestants  for 
power.  But  what  had  become  of  the  splendid  dream 
of  a  new  golden  age  of  natural  equality  and  impre- 
scriptible rights,  to  be  ushered  in  under  the  auspices 
of  enthusiastic  philosophers,  whose  heads  the  remorse- 
less guillotine  had  already  chopped  off?  Strange 
era  of  freedom  of  opinion  that,  in  which  one  set  of 
victims  was  sent  to  the  scaffold  because  they  were 
charged  with  being  atheists,  and  another  because 
they  adhered  to  the  faith  of  their  fathers !  Had  not 
the  pretended  capacity  of  men  to  govern  themselves 
been  experimentally  proved,  in  the  face  of  the  world, 
to  be  nothing  but  a  mad  and  bloody  delusion  ?  In 
overturning  the  influence  of  mystical  ideas  and  hered- 
itary respect,  what,  except  to  unchain  the  tiger,  had 
been  done  by  the  philosophers  lately  so  admired,  but 
whose  very  names  began  now  to  be  pronounced  with 
execration  ?  It  was  true,  then,  after  all,  that  only  by 
18* 


210  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

the  authority  of  kings,  priests,  and  nobles,  could  men 
be  kept  in  order.  Did  not  the  experiment  of  the 
French  revolution  conclusively  show  that  there  was 
no  other  basis  on  which  property  and  morals  could 
stand,  except  those  very  mystical  ideas  so  much 
scoutecl  by  the  Freethinkers  ? 

Nor  were  these  reactionary  views  at  all  confined  to 
the  monarchs,  nobles,  and  clergy.  They  were  shared 
also,  to  a  very  great  extent,  by  the  burgher  class,  the 
necks  of  whose  leading  representatives  in  France  had 
felt  the  edge  of  the  Jacobin  guillotine  scarcely  in  a 
less  degree  than  the  clergy  and  the  nobles.  Especially 
was  this  the  case  in  England,  where  mystical  ideas, 
partly  in  consequence  of  the  Methodist  reaction,  had 
preserved  a  much  stronger  hold  upon  the  burgher  class 
than  any  where  else  in  Europe  ;  and  where,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  strong  conservative  reaction  which  now 
commenced,  the  "  oligarchy  of  borough-mongers,"  con- 
trary to  every  indication,  a  few  years  before,  was  able 
to  prolong  its  existence  for  forty  years,  and  partially 
so  even  to  the  present  moment. 

The  elder  Pitt  had  been  the  first  man  to  shake  the 
power  of  the  "  borough-mongers."  His  eloquence  and 
energy,  and  the  popular  favor  by  which  he  was  backed, 
had  enabled  him,  at  a  crisis  when  unsuccessful  war 
made  incapacity  apparent,  to  raise  himself  to  the 
head  of  the  ministry  in  spite  of  them.  The  great 
advance  in  productive  industry  which  took  place  in 
England,  commencing  with  the  latter  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  the  consequent  increasing 
wealth  and  political  weight  of  the  burgher  class ;  the 
complete  establishment  of  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
and  the  multiplication  of  periodicals  in  which  polit- 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       211 

ical  questions  were  discussed  ;  the  publication  of  the 
parliamentary  debates  —  itself,  in  the  check  which  it 
placed  upon  the  "borough-mongers,"  equivalent  al- 
most to  a  revolution,  —  all  these  causes  had  combined 
to  give  to  the  burgher  class  a  new  interest  in  politics. 
No  longer  kept  quiet  by  the  mere  faint  shadow  of 
parliamentary  representation,  (mistaking  the  contests 
of  the  little  factions  of  Whigs  and  Tories  on  the 
mere  point  of  who  should  be  in  and  who  should 
be  out  for  the  contest  of  popular  liberty  against  mo- 
narchical power,)  they  had  begun,  for  some  years 
previous  to  the  French  revolution,  to  open  their  eyes, 
and  to  demand  something  more  than  a  mere  show 
of  participation  in  the  government.  And  for  this 
there  was  the  more  occasion,  since  the  Whigs  and 
Tories,  who  had  for  some  time  been  separated  only 
by  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  expediency  of 
the  American  war,  were  now  all  jumbled  together; 
Fox  coalescing  with  North,  in  order  to  oust  from 
office  some  of  his  own  Whig  coadjutors,  and  Burke, 
not  long  after,  strenuously  maintaining,-  and  not  with- 
out success,  his  perfect  consistency  in  being  at  the 
same  time  an  old  Whig  and  a  new  Tory. 

Parliamentary  reform  —  a  change  which  would  take 
the  control  of  Parliament  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
"  oligarchy  of  borough-mongers  "  —  had  been  for  some 
time  loudly  demanded.  Political  adventurers,  such 
as  the  younger  Pitt,  ready  to  serve  any  party  able  to 
raise  them  to  the  head  of  affairs,  had  adopted  the 
advocacy  of  such  a  reform  as  a  likely  means  of  polit- 
ical elevation ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of 
Burke  and  other  able  servants  and  retainers  of  the 
borough-mongering  interest,  some  such  reform  seemed 
likely  to  be  speedily  carried. 


212  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

The  breaking  out,  indeed,  of  the  French  revolution 
excited  hopes  in  Great  Britain  of  something  even 
more  thorough  than  merely  the  annihilation  of  rotten 
boroughs.  It  first  called  into  existence  ideas  of  radical 

O 

reform — in  other  words,  the  ultimate  establishment  of 
a  democratic  republic.  But  the  reaction  occasioned  by 
the  French  reign  of  terror,  and  the  anti-Jacobin  war 
into  which  the  nation  was  plunged,  enabled  the  "  oli- 
garchy of  borough-mongers,"  now  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  younger  Pitt,  by  the  help  of  a  little  reign 
of  terror  of  their  own  in  Great  Britain,  and  a  great 
one  in  Ireland,  still  to  retain  the  management  of 
affairs. 

This  general  conservative  reaction  gave  a  new  im- 
pulse to  the  mystical  reaction  already  commenced  in 
England,  and  which  now  spread  rapidly  over  the  con- 
tinent. Previous  to  the  French  revolution,  the  higher 
orders  throughout  Europe  had  become,  almost  to  a 
man,  more  or  less  Freethinkers ;  but  they  began  now 
to  feel  the  necessity,  if  they  would  have  the  people 
devout,  of  themselves  setting  the  example.  This  re- 
action, in  common  with  the  other,  extended  even  to 
France ;  and  when  Bonaparte,  through  the  splendor 
of  his  military  achievements  and  his  influence  with 
the  soldiers,  was  enabled  to  take  advantage  of  llu- 
current  of  counter  revolution  to  make  himself,  first 
consul,  and  then  emperor,  one  of  his  earliest  acts  was 
a  concordat  with  the  pope,  and  the  relegalization  of 
the  Catholic  worship. 

In  England,  the  new  Whigs,  of  whom  Fox  was 
the  founder  and  chief  leader,  contented  themselves,  sb 
long  as  the  war  with  France  lasted,  merely  with  op- 
position to  that.  To  judge  from  the  pages  of  their 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       213 

organ,  the  Edinburgh  Revieiv^  they  seem,  indeed,  to 
have  been  just  as  hostile  as  the  Tories  to  any  thing 
like  radical  reform.  The  restless  and  insatiable  am- 
bition of  Bonaparte  cooperating  with  and  stimulated 
by  the  necessities  of  his  position,  rallied,  at  length,  all 
Europe  against  him,  people  as  well  as  kings,  including 
even  the  British  Whigs  —  a  rally  which  brought  about 
his  double  dethronement,  and,  with  the  further  prog- 
ress of  the  reaction,  the  modified  reestablishment  of 
the  old  French  monarchy. 

Beginning  now  sensibly  to  feel  the  enormous  bur- 
den, in  the  shape  of  debt  and  taxation,  which  the 
anti-revolutionary  war  had  imposed  upon  them,  a 
section  of  the  British  middle  class,  seconded  by  the 
manufacturing  operatives,  who  had  come,  at  last, 
to  take  an  interest  in  public  affairs,  and  to  claim 
for  themselves  a  participation  in  political  power,  re- 
newed the  call  for  parliamentary  reform,  as  a  first 
step  towards  infinite  other  reforms.  This  demand 
was  quieted,  for  the  time,  by  the  help  of  the  standing 
army,  relieved  from  service  abroad,  and  now  employed 
at  home  to  disperse  the  public  ^meetings  at  which 
these  changes  were  demanded.  But,  with  the  contin- 
ued depression  of  trade  and  manufactures,  no  longer 
fostered  by  war  monopoly,  war  demand,  and  immense 
expendiures  on  credit,  this  call  for  parliamentary  re- 
form grew  louder  and  louder ;  till  at  length  the  faction 
of  the  Whigs,  kept  almost  as  long  in  a  minority  as 
the  Tories  had  been  during  the  reigns  of  the  first  two 
Georges,  began  to  reecho  it,  as  a  means  of  once  more 
getting  into  power. 

The  government  established  in  France  after  the 
overthrow  and  expulsion  of  Bonaparte  assumed  a 


214  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

decidedly  municipal  character.  Louis  XVIII.  granted 
a  charter  embracing  all  Frenchmen,  as  his  predeces- 
sors had  granted  charters  to  particular  cities.  At  the 
same  time,  this  new  charter  government  presented 
very  much  the  character  of  a  close  corporation  — 
the  right  of  voting  for  members  of  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  who  shared,  with  a  house  of  hereditary 
peers  and  with  the  king,  the  power  of  legislation, 
being  limited  to  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  in- 
dividuals out  of  a  population  of  some  thirty  millions. 

In  the  western  part  of  Germany,  the  French  revolu- 
tion had  overthrown  the  old  social  system  hardly  less 
thoroughly  than  in  France  itself;  and  the  same  effect 
was  felt  to  a  considerable  extent  in  Italy  and  the 
Spanish  peninsula.  The  German  empire,  and  the 
ecclesiastical  princes  of  Germany,  reigning  by  the 
choice  of  their  clergy  and  the  confirmation  of  the 
pope,  disappeared  from  the  scene,  as  did  also  all  of 
the  imperial  cities  but  four,  and  all  but  one  or  two  of 
the  sovereign  counts ;  reducing  the  members  of  the 
Germanic  body — now  transformed  into  a  confeder- 
ation—  from  near  three  hundred  to  less  than  forty. 
Venice  and  Genoa,  nominal  republics,  which  had 
lagged  so  far  behind  the  age  to  which  they  belonged, 
were  now  at  last,  too,  absorbed  by  their  regal  neigh- 
bors. Holland  also  became  a  kingdom,  with  Belgium 
reannexed  to  it.  Of  all  the  old  European  republics, 
the  Swiss  confederation  and  four  German  cities  alone 
survived. 

Spain,  in  its  efforts  to  expel  the  French,  had  organ- 
ized itself  into  a  burgher  monarchy ;  and  the  German 
princes,  anxious  to  secure  aid  against  Bonaparte,  had 
promised  to  their  people  also  constitutional  govern- 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       215 

ments.  But  only  a  few  of  the  weaker  of  them 
partially  fulfilled  their  promises,  while,  by  the  help 
of  the  holy  alliance  between  Russia,  Austria,  Prussia, 
and  the  restored  Bourbons,  for  the  protection  and 
sustentation  of  religion  and  legitimacy,  even  the  free 
constitution  of  Spain  was  suppressed,  as  well  as  the 
attempts  of  the  Italians  to  obtain  a  share  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  affairs.  The  leading  member  of  this 
holy  alliance  was  Russia,  —  now  first  prominent  in 
the  affairs  of  Western  Europe,  —  a  country  in  which 
the  influences  of  hereditary  respect  and  of  mystical 
ideas  were  still  in  full  force,  giving  vast  energy  to  the 
imperial  power  —  influences  which  in  Austria  also 
were  still  very  powerful. 

Surrounded  and  instigated  by  returned  emigrants, 
(remnants  of  the  old  regime,)  and  by  priests  of  the 
revived  order  of  the  Jesuits,  (fruits  of  the  mystical 
reaction,)  Louis  XVIIL,  and  his  successor,  Charles  X., 
unable  to  forget  the  old  monarchy,  as  they  remembered 
it  previous  to  the  meeting  of  the  National  Assembly, 
struggled  hard  to  revive  that  old  regime  in  all  its 
forms,  and  especially  to  reestablish  the  old  privileges 
and  influence  of  the  nobility  and  clergy.  But  this 
was  quite  against  the  bent  of  the  Paris  bankers,  shop- 
keepers, and  property  holders,  —  the  new  burgher  aris- 
tocracy of  the  revolution,  —  who  took  occasion,  from 
an  attack  upon  the  press,  to  make  a  street  insurrection 
against  Charles  X.,  in  which  the  operatives  joined, 
and  which  resulted  in  his  dethronement  and  banish- 
ment from  France. 

After  some  contest  —  whether  a  republic  should  not 
be  proclaimed  —  with  the  members  and  adherents 
of  the  old  Jacobin  party  which  still  survived,  and 


216  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

always  showed  its  head  in  times  of  commotion,  it 
was  resolved  to  pacify  the  still  strong  reactionary 
prejudice  of  Europe  in  favor  of  monarchy,  by  selecting 
a  new  king;  to  which  post  Louis  Philippe  was  rec- 
ommended, not  only  as  the  head  of  the  younger 
branch  of  the  old  royal  family,  but  as  being,  from  his 
immense  landed  possessions,  and  other  wealth,  the 
richest  man  in  Europe  —  the  very  recommendation 
of  all  others  for  a  burgher  monarch.  The  charter,  no 
longer,  as  at  first,  the  mere  gracious  grant  of  a  legit- 
imate, hereditary,  and  self-ruling  king,  became  now 
the  act  of  the  nation.  The  hereditary  peerage  was 
abolished  in  favor  of  a  peerage,  or  senatorship,  for  life 
—  such  as  Hamilton  had  recommended  for  adoption  in 
America.  But  the  elective  franchise  was  only  very 
slightly  extended ;  and  the  intense  concentration  of 
all  power  in  the  central  administration,  begun  by  the 
National  Assembly,  carried  out  by  the  Jacobins,  per- 
fected by  Bonaparte,  and  continued  by  the  Bourbons, 
was  still  retained  in  all  its  despotic  rigor  —  an  or- 
ganization fitter  for  a  camp  than  for  a  common- 
wealth, and  putting  liberty,  in  any  sense  in  which 
that  term  is  understood  in  America  or  Great  Britain, 
quite  out  of  the  question. 

The  thrill  of  the  French  revolution  of  1830  was 
felt  throughout  Europe.  The  unfortunate  Poles  were 
stimulated  by  it  to  an  insurrection  which  resulted  in 
their  more  complete  subjection  to  the  power  of  Russia. 
Belgium,  through  the  influence  of  religious  antipathy, 
separated  itself  from  Holland,  but  reorganized  itself 
under  a  constitution  still  more  liberal ;  while  Portugal 
and  Spain,  by  the  fortunate  accident  of  three  disputed 
successions,  were  enabled  to  reestablish  their  burgher 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       217 

monarchies,  and  greatly  to  reduce  the  political  power 
of  the  clergy  by  confiscating  the  greater«part  of  their 
property. 

The  expulsion  of  Charles  X.  from  the  throne  of 
France  frightened  the  British  "borough-mongers" 
into  yielding  up,  to  a  considerable  extent,  the  control 
they  had  so  long  exercised  over  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. The  great  body  of  the  burgher  class  —  the 
mere  operatives  being  still  rigorously  excluded  — 
obtained,  by  the  reform  bill,  the  right  to  vote.  But, 
partly  from  the  unequal  ratio  of  representation,  the 
influence  of  wealth  in  the  British  isles  still  vastly  pre- 
ponderates over  all  the  other  elements  of  power ;  and 
the  oligarchy  of  the  very  rich,  greatly  as  they  dreaded 
and  deprecated  the  operation  of  the  reform  act,  find 
themselves  still  able  to  command,  by  influence  or  by 
bribery,  —  which,  however  the  laws  may  affect  to 
discountenance  it,  is  as  much  a  part,  and  as  essential 
a  part  too,  of  the  existing  British  constitution  as  the 
House  of  Commons  itself,  —  a  controlling  power  in 
that  body  quite  sufficient,  if  not  to  dictate  its  action, 
at  least  to  shackle,  to  limit,  and  to  regulate  it. 

The  disgust  of  the  manufacturing  operatives  at 
bring  wholly  overlooked  in  the  new  distribution  of 
suffrage,  and  the  formation,  in  consequence,  of  a 
new  and  separate  party,  under  the  name  of  Chartists, 
—  a  new  feature  in  British  and  European  politics,  — 
has  greatly  tended,  temporarily  at  least,  by  dividing 
the  radicals  into  two  hostile  factions,  to  strengthen 
the  hands  of  the  conservative  section  of  the  British 
burgher  aristocracy,  into  which,  at  last,  the  old  feudal 
aristocracy  has  been  completely  absorbed  —  the  con- 
servative party  of  Great  Britain  having  lately  had  for 
19 


218  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

chief  leaders  the  son  of  a  Yorkshire  cotton  spinner  and 
the  son  of  a*  colonial  portrait  painter ;  while  one  of 
its  present  principal  heads  is  but  a  burgher  novelist, 
enriched  by  marriage  and  elevated  by  talent.  Upon 
one  point,  however,  that  of  the  prohibition  or  ex- 
cessive taxation  of  imported  food,  —  a  policy  designed 
to  raise  the  rents  of  the  landholders, — the  growing 
predominancy  of  the  manufacturing  interest  has  at 
length  prevailed,  and  unrestricted  commerce  —  un- 
doubtedly for  the  benefit  of  the  British,  however  it 
may  operate  upon  other  nations  —  has  become  the 
settled  policy  of  the  empire. 

Simultaneously  with  the  gradual  replacement,  by 
an  aristocracy  of  wealth,  of  the  old  feudal  aristocracy 
of  caste,  the  monarchical  power,  founded  on  similar 
ideas,  may  be  said  to  have  become  extinct  in  Great 
Britain.  The  monarchical  forms  are  still  indeed  pre- 
served, and  at  a  great  expense  too  —  an  idle  king  or 
queen  and  a  large  royal  family  being  still  exhibited  to 
the  admiring  gaze  of  the  great  and  little  vulgar.  But 
however,  from  education,  habit,  or  policy,  the  better 
informed  may  join  in  keeping  up  this  solemn  farce, 
every  sensible  person  in  Great  Britain  knows  that  the 
queen,  politically  speaking,  is  nobody,  all  the  preroga- 
tives of  the  crown,  even  to  the  appointment  of  her 
bed-chamber  women,  being  exercised  by  ministers, 
indebted  for  their  posts  not  in  the  slightest  degree  to 
her  choice,  but  exclusively  to  the  favor  of  the  House 
of  Commons. 

But  if  the  feudal  age  system  has  so  far  died  out  in 
Great  Britain,  that  the  power  of  the  monarch  and  of 
the  nobility  of  caste  is  at  an  end,  that  is  far  from 
yet  being  the  case  with  the  influenpe  of  mystical 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       219 

'ideas,  which  still  cast  a  malign  shadow  over  the 
social  condition  of  the  British  nation. 

All  the  various  religious  organizations,  of  which  the 
power  had  greatly  diminished,  felt  the  effects  of  the 
reaction  which  followed  the  French  revolution.  Even 
the  Catholics  vindicated,  after  a  long  and  bitter  strug- 
gle, their  claim  to  equal  participation  in  political 
rights  —  a  participation  conceded  at  last  through  fear, 
as  the  extension  of  the  franchise  was  soon  after  ;  and, 
through  the  Irish,  whose  votes  the  Catholic  priesthood 
control,  they  have  risen  from  the  lowest  point  of  politi- 
cal degradation  to  be  a  formidable  power  in  the  state. 

The  Presbyterian  clergy  of  Scotland  were  even  en- 
couraged by  the  growing  force  of  mystical  ideas  to 
put  forward  claims  to  an  authority  independent  of  the 
civil  power,  and  in  derogation  of  the  vested  rights  of 
patrons,  the  rejection  of  which  has  been  followed  by  a 
secession,  and  the  organization,  with  great  funds,  of 
a  new  and  influential  ecclesiastical  association,  under 
the  name  of  the  Free  Church  —  a  schism,  however, 
from  which  mysticism  is  likely  to  reap  but  small  fruits. 
From  the  same  source  have  sprung  the  similar  efforts 
of  the  Puseyites  to  carry  back  the  English  church  to 
the  days  of  Archbishop  Laud.  The  English  dissent- 
ers magnify  themselves  meanwhile  on  the  sturdy  re- 
sistance which  they  maintain  against  the  political  and 
spiritual  pretensions  of  the  established  clergy,  —  that 
is  to  say,  against  the  influence  of  mystical  ideas  em- 
bodied in  that  form,  —  a  warfare  which  they  push  even 
to  the  extent  of  preferring  that  the  children  of  the 
poor  shall  go  untaught  to  read,  rather  than  have  them 
simultaneously  instructed  in  the  church  catechism. 
And  yet  these  very  dissenters,  thus  pluming  themselves 


220  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

on  opposition  to  the  church,  have  been,  and  arty 
among  the  chief  instruments  in  upholding  it.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  converts  whom  they  so  assiduously 
make  to  mystical  ideas,  so  soon  as  they  obtain  wealth 
enough  to  be  of  any  political  weight,  strive  to  rec- 
ommend themselves  to  the  favor  of  the  aristocracy, 
into  which  they  seek  admission,  by  abandoning  the 
conventicle  and  going  back  to  the  church,  which, 
without  this  constant  replenishment,  would  scarcely 
have  zeal  and  vigor  enough,  spite  of  its  great  wealth 
and  its  share  in  the  legislative  authority,  to  sustain, 
even  so  well  as  it  does,  its  hold  on  the  public  mind. 
What  the  mendicant  orders  were  during  the  middle 
ages  to  the  church  of  Rome,  the  dissenting  organiza- 
tions, little  as  they  wish  it,  have  been,  in  a  measure, 
to  the  church  of  England.  Take  away  from  the 
church  of  England  its  evangelical  and  its  Puseyite 
elements,  —  elements  directly  traceable,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  Methodistical  influence,  —  and  what  would 
there  be  left  of  it  ?  As  it  is,  the  church  is  strong, 
and  a  great  stumbling  block  in  the  way  of  all  political 
reforms.  Nor  is  that  even  the  worst  of  it.  In  con- 
templating the  future  of  Great  Britain,  the  most  dis- 
couraging thing  about  it  certainly  is  fierce  religions 
quarrels  already  pending,  and  the  bitter  sectarian 
hatred  which  they  engender. 

At  an  early  day  of  the  French  revolution,  the  negro 
slaves  of  the  flourishing  French  colony  in  the  western 
part  of  St.  Domingo  had  risen  against  their  masters, 
and  with  amazing  energy  had  resisted  all  the  at- 
tempts, first  of  the  British  and  then  of  Bonaparte,  to 
resubject  them.  Hayti  thus  became  the  second  in- 
dependent state  of  America,  the  United  States  being 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       221 

the  first.  The  attempt  of  Bonaparte  to  grasp  the 
crowns  of  Portugal  and  Spain  had  also  furnished  oc- 
casion and  opportunity  to  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish- 
American  provinces  to  vindicate  their  independence. 
Those  civil  wars,  by  which  the  Spanish- American 
republics  have  been  so  much  distracted,  —  another 
severe  stab,  not  merely  at  the  theory  of  the  equal 
rights  of  man,  but  at  the  idea  of  the  capacity  of  man- 
kind for  self-government,  —  have  been  almost  en- 
tirely occasioned  by  the  great  inequalities  of  wealth, 
and  that  predominating  mystical  influence  which  the 
old  system  had  left  behind  it ;  having  been,  for  the 
most  part,  a  struggle  between  the  priests  and  a  small 
body  of  very  wealthy  proprietors  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  mass  of  the  small  proprietors  on  the  other, 
with  some  episodes  of  military  usurpation,  personal 
rivalries,  rustic  insurrections,  and  accidental  disputes. 
The  mass  of  the  people,  consisting  of  aboriginal 
Indians,  and  freed  slaves  of  African  descent,  or  a 
mixture  of  these  with  the  Spanish  blood,  have  been 
too  ignorant  to  perceive  their  own  interests  or  to  act 
with  any  steady  combination  or  aim ;  nor,  except  in 
Guatimala.  have  they  exercised  any  considerable  in- 
fluence on  the  progress  of  events,  which  seems,  how- 
ever, to  tend  decisively  towards  the  triumph  of  the 
small  proprietors,  the  subdivision  of  landed  domains, 
and  the  establishment  of  governments  upon  a  com- 
paratively popular  basis. 

Had  Louis  Philippe  and  his  advisers  comprehended 
the  nature  of  his  position  and  the  true  interests  of 
France  and  the  world,  they  had  a  post  of  advantage 
in  the  French  charter,  meagre  as  it  was,  whence  they 
might  gradually  have  initiated  the  French  people 
19* 


222  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

into  the  art  of  self-government  —  an  art  not  to  be 
learned  in  a  day,  and  for  which,  without  practice, 
no  amount  of  mere  science  or  theory  will  suffice. 
That  initiation  on  the  part  of  the  French  people 
might,  it  would  seem,  have  been  peacefully  and 
successfully  accomplished  by  gradually  intrusting 
the  communes  with  the  management  of  their  own 
affairs,  and  by  a  corresponding  extension  of  the 
right  of  suffrage.  But  the  Orleans  dynasty  had  its 
own  battle  to  fight  for  existence  as  well  against 
the  religious  and  sentimental  retainers  of  the  Bour- 
bons as  against  the  republicans,  the  hands  of  both 
of  whom  would  have  been  strengthened  by  any  ex- 
tension of  popular  rights.  The  French  statesmen, 
too,  had  their  own  nests  to  feather ;  and  even  those 
few  whose  patriotism  and  disinterestedness  were 
beyond  question,  invincibly  impressed  in  their  youth 
with  the  reactionary  spirit,  and  confused,  rather  than 
enlightened,  by  their  learning,  could  not  see  in  Europe 
as  it  now  is  any  thing  beyond  the  feudal  ages,  or  at 
least  the  hardly  less  obsolete  precedent  of  the  English 
change  of  dynasty  from  the  Stuarts  to  the  Guelphs. 
Such  was  the  spirit  in  which  M.  Guizot  sacrificed 
himself  and  the  Orleans  family  to  a  pedagogical  at- 
tempt to  prevent  the  eating  of  a  political  dinner  — 
an  attempt  which  threw  the  boys  into  an  uproar, 
and  ended  in  a  new  barring  out. 

Though  every  body  knew  that  the  seat  of  the 
citizen  king  was  not  over  secure,  the  dethronement  of 
the  Orleans  family  was,  however,  at  the  moment,  en- 
tirely unexpected,  resulting  a  great  deal  more  from 
the  extreme  political  weakness  of  the  Orleans  dynasty 
than  from  the  strength  of  any  body  else.  France 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       223 

being  thus  suddenly  left  without  a  government,  a 
dozen  gentlemen  of  good  courage  and  various  opin- 
ions, poets,  journalists,  and  old  Jacobin  conspirators, 
volunteered  themselves  as  temporary  dictators ;  and 
though  their  claim  to  act  as  such  had  no  other  basis 
than  their  superior  energy  and  force  of  will,  it  was, 
for  the  moment,  favorably  admitted.  Under  their 
auspices,  a  Constituent  Assembly  was  elected  by 
universal  suffrage,  which,  not  being  able  to  agree 
upon  any  thing  else,  agreed  upon  a  republican  con- 
stitution—  its  most  marked  features  being  a  legisla- 
ture chosen  by  universal  suffrage,  and  a  president 
chosen  in  the  same  way,  for  a  short  term  indeed,  but 
the  old  despotic  system  of  centralization  being  pre- 
served almost  entire,  with  a  tremendous  concentra- 
tion in  his  person  of  executive  'authority,  including 
the  unrestricted  command  of  a  standing  army  of 
four  hundred  thousand  men. 

The  Bourbons  —  both  those  of  the  older  and  those 
of  the  younger  branch  — being  now  in  exile,  the  Bona- 
partes,  who  had  taken  the  opportunity  to  return  to 
France,  were  the  only  family  in  whose  favor  could 
act  those  ideas  of  hereditary  respect,  always  so  in- 
fluential with  a  rude  rural  people  like  the  mass  of 
the  French  proprietors  and  cultivators.  It  was  this 
sentiment,  —  and  his  perpetual  talk  about  the  emperor 
"  my  uncle"  shows  that  he  had  the  sense  to  know  it, 
—  a  great  deal  more  than  the  support  of  any  of  the 
factions  that  hoped  to  use  him,  that  made  Louis 
Napoleon  president. 

The  new  Assembly,  chosen  by  universal  suffrage, 
was,  as  might  have  been  expected,  a  faithful  repre- 
sentation of  the  French  people.  The  friends  of  the 


224  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

*      A 

new  constitution  were  a  small  minority  in  it;  and 
their  violent  folly  —  for  they  had  little  idea,  any  more 
than  any  other  of  the  French  factions,  of  carrying  any 
thing  except  in  the  old  Jacobin  spirit  of  seizing  upon 
power  with  the  strong  hand  —  soon  gave  to  the  major- 
ity a  plausible  pretence  for  still  further  reducing  their 
number  by  expulsion.  So  little  regard  had  the  large 
majority  of  this  purged  Assembly  —  composed  of 
Bourbonists,  Orleanists,  Bonapartists,  and  miscellane- 
ous political  adventurers  —  for  the  written  constitution 
under  which  they  acted,  that  they  did  not  hesitate  to 
alter  and  curtail  it  even  on  the  grand  point  of  tho 
right  of  suffrage ;  nor  did  they  think  of  any  thing  else 
except  to  make  it  a  stepping  stone  by  which  they 
might  respectively  mount  into  power,  treading,  at  the 
same  time,  on  the  necks  of  their  opponents.  The 
president  was  just  as  false  and  faithless,  and  just  as 
much  bent  on  schemes  for  his  own  advancement,  as 
were  the  different  factions  in  the  Assembly,  all  of  whom 
he  wheedled  and  deceived  in  turn,  till,  hcving  secured 
the  favor  of  the  priests,  having  the  army  also,  and  the 
countless  host  of  civil  officials,  under  his  constitutional 
control,  and  a  host  of  creditors  ready  to  make  new 
advances  for  fear  of  losing  all,  he  did  what,  with  all 
these  aids,  it  surely  was  no  great  feat  to  do  ;  what,  in 
fact,  the  majority  of  the  Assembly  had  itself  already 
done  to  a  minority  of  its  own  members  —  dispersed 
it  by  military  force,  under  the  sufficiently  plausible 
pretence  of  conspiracy  against  the  president's  author- 
ity and  person  ;  appointed  himself,  first,  president  for 
life,  with  unlimited  power,  and  next  emperor  ;  and 
finally  got  these  pretences  sustained  and  these  pro- 
ceedings ratified  by  an  overwhelming  popular  vote 
in  his  favor. 


ADDITIONAL    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    HISTORY.       225 

The  child  catches  many  a  fall,  but  learns  at  length 
not  only  to  walk,  but  to  run  ;  and  self-government  is 
not,  any  more  than  walking,  a  thing  to  be  learned  in  a 
day,  nor  to  be  given  up  as  impracticable  on  account 
of  the  failure,  however  disastrous  or  ridiculous,  of 
a  few  first  attempts  at  it.  Though  it  is  impossible 
precisely  to  foretell  the  future  course  of  the  French 
revolution,  it  is  perfectly  safe  to  say  that  France  will 
not  become  an  hereditary  despotism  in  the  Bonaparte 
family. 

What  greatly  weakened  the  French  republican 
party,  and  contributed  as  much  as  any  thing  else  to 
the  quiet  establishment  of  the  new  imperial  rule,  was 
the  division  of  that  party,  like  the  radical  party  in 
England,  into  two  hostile  sections. 

The  operatives  of  Paris,  not  content  with  that  uni- 
versal suffrage  and  vote  by  ballot,  —  the  most  which 
the  English  Chartists  claimed,  —  put  forth  pretensions 
to  the  aid  of  the  government  in  the  reorganization  of 
industry  upon  a  new  basis,  such  as  might  add  the 
equalization  of  wealth  to  the  equalization  of  political 
rights  —  an  equalization  of  wealth  without  which, 
as  they  justly  conceived,  political  equality  could  not 
exist. 

These  socialist  demands  for  a  new  distribution  of 
the  products  of  labor  are  a  logical  deduction,  perfectly 
unexceptionable,  from  the  famous  dogma  of  Adam 
Smith,  that  labor  is  the  sole  source  of  wealth.  If  so, 
why  should  not  the  wealth  thus  produced  go  exclusive- 
ly to  those  whose  labor  has  called  it  into  existence, 
instead  of  sticking  to  the  fingers  of  capitalists  and 
speculators  ? 

But,  respectable  as  the  pedigree  of  this   doctrine 


226  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

might  be,  it  was  not,  on  that  account,  any  the  less 
alarming  to  the  property  holders,  who,  in  France, 
rather  than  be  obliged  to  fight  street  battles  for  pro- 
tection against  the  socialists,  have,  naturally  enough, 
preferred  the  re  establishment  of  the  empire,  even 
though  with  a  Napoleon  the  Little  at  its  head. 

As  usual,  the  political  shock  in  France  which 
tumbled  down  the  citizen  king  was  felt  to  the  con- 
fines of  Europe,  and  with  the  weakening  that  resulted 
of  the  bands  of  existing  authority,  new  ideas,  or 
rather  old  ones  revived  in  the  studies  of  professors, 
improved  the  opportunity  to  struggle  for  realization. 
Democratic  opinions  appear  to  have  had  but  a 
small  part  in  this  movement.  The  revival  of  the 
Slavonic  nationalities,  the  reconstruction  of  the  Ger- 
man empire  undertaken  by  a  volunteer  convention 
of  jurists  and  scholars,  even  the  restoration  of  the 
Hungarian  constitution  on  its  ancient  model,  were 
none  of  them  but  flitting  ghosts  of  the  past.  Where 
the  movement  was  democratic,  as  in  some  of  the 
westernmost  German  states,  it  was  greatly  damaged 
by  the  socialist  schism.  Though  baffled  at  first,  the 
military  aggregation  of  power  in  the  hands  of  the 
King  of  Prussia  and  the  Emperors  of  Austria  and 
Russia —  the  last  two  combining  and  acting  together 
—  has  naturally  triumphed,  at  least  for  the  hour,  over 
the  discordant  and  even  hostile  elements  aroused 
against  them.  So  ends  that  which  we  have  called 
the  Commercial  Sub-period  of  the  Burgher  Age.  Al- 
ready a  New  Era  has  begun,  of  which  we  shall  at- 
tempt, in  a  subsequent  chapter,  slightly  to  raise  the 
veil. 


PART    THIRD. 

GOVERNMENTS  IN  THEIR  INFLUENCE  UPON 
THE  PROGRESS  OF  CIVILIZATION,  AND 
UPON  HUMAN  HAPPINESS  IN  GENERAL. 


CHAPTER  I. 

DEFINITIONS  OF  THE  TERMS  LIBERTY,  SLAVERY, 
AND   CIVILIZATION. 

IN  all  disquisitions  concerning  government,  great 
use  is  made  of  the  terms  Freedom,  Slavery,  and 
Civilization.  It  therefore  becomes  necessary  to  as- 
certain and  fix  the  sense  in  which  these  words  are 
employed. 

The  terms  Freedom  and  Slavery,  in  their  proper 
original  sense,  have  exclusive  reference  to  the  con- 
dition of  chattel  slavery  or  domestic  servitude. 
Those  subjected  to  domestic  servitude  are  Slaves, 
those  not  so  subjected  are  Free. 

The  term  Slavery  was  first  employed  in  a  political 
sense  to  describe  the  condition  of  conquered  tribes 
subdued  by  some  hostile  community.  Frequently 
such  conquered  tribes  were  made  actual  slaves  of,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Helots  subdued  by  the  Spartans. 
In  other  cases  they  were  permitted  to  retain  their 
personal  freedom  and  a  portion  of  their  property  on 
condition  of  paying  tribute ;  the  government  being 

227 


THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

sometimes  transferred  to  a  deputy,  or  proconsul,  (to 
use  the  Roman  term,)  of  the  conquering  tribe,  sus- 
tained by  a  body  of  troops,  and  sometimes  allowed 
to  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  native  chiefs  by  Avhom 
the  tribute  was  collected  and  paid.  Communities  in 
this  condition  were  said  to  be  enslaved,  and  the 
throwing  off  the  foreign  yoke  was  said  to  be  a  vindi- 
cation of  their  liberties. 

The  word  Slavery  was  next  employed  to  describe 
the  political  condition  of  those  states  which,  after 
having  enjoyed  a  republican  form  of  government, 
had  fallen  under  the  control  of  an  oligarchy  or  a 
single  ruler.  Such  governments  were  called  by  the 
Greeks  Tyrannies.  States  so  ruled  were  said  to  be 
enslaved,  and  the  overturning  such  a  tyranny  was 
regarded  as  the  reestablishment  of  liberty. 

The  word  Liberty  was  employed  by  the  nobles, 
the  churchmen,  and  the  municipalities  of  the  middle 
ages,  as  synonymous  with  the  preservation  and  ex- 
tension of  the  privileges  and  the  authority  appertain- 
ing to,  or  claimed  by,  their  respective  orders.  As 
conflicts  often  existed  between  the  claims  of  these 
bodies,  the  word  Liberty  was  often  employed  in 
very  different  and  conflicting  senses  —  meaning  some- 
times the  power  and  privileges  of  the  nobles,  some- 
times those  of  the  cities,  and  sometimes  those  of  the 
church.  Nobles,  churchmen,  and  citizens,  all  united, 
however,  in  describing,  as  the  vindication  of  liberty, 
that  opposition  which  they  all  made  at  different  times 
to  the  extension  of  monarchical  authority ;  so  that 
at  length  the  w6rd  Liberty  came  again,  as  in  the 
days  of  Greece  and  Rome,  —  and  partly,  perhaps, 
through  the  influence  of  the  ancient  classical  writers, 


DEFINITION    OF    TERMS.  229 

-to  be  used  as  synonymous  with  republicanism,  or 
opposition  to  monarchy. 

In  recent  times,  the  words  Liberty  and  Slavery,  when 
employed  to  describe  the  political  condition  of  com- 
munities, are  used  in  a  much  more  general  sense.  In 
current  speech,  the  word  Liberty  is  synonymous  with 
political  equality,  and  the  word  Slavery  with  political 
inequality.  The  domination  of  the  many  over  the 
few,  especially  when  it  is  but  a  mere  reign  of  terror, 
upheld  not  by  admiration,  but  by  fear,  constitutes,  in- 
deed, that  condition  of  things  which  we  have  already 
distinguished  as  SOCIAL  SLAVERY,  which  seems  to 
differ  from  chattel  or  domestic  slavery  only  in  this, 
that,  instead  of  being  the  particular  slaves  of  individ- 
ual masters,  the  mass  of  the  people  are  regarded  and 
substantially  treated  as  the  common  property  of  the 
aristocratic  order,  bound  to  labor,  suffer,  and  submit 
for  their  benefit.  It  was  in  these  senses  that  the 
words  Liberty  and  Slavery  were  used  by  the  partisans 
of  the  French  revolution ;  and  it  is  in  this  sense, 
more  or  less  exactly  apprehended,  that  they  are  used 
in  current  political  disquisitions. 

It  ought,  however,  to  be  noted  that  the  word  Free- 
dom, and  its  synonyme  Liberty,  are  still  occasionally 
used  in  that  anti-social  sense,  so  prevalent  among  the 
nobles  of  the  feudal  age,  and  proper  enough  to  a  bar- 
barous state  of  society,  in  which  they  signify  the 
absence  of  all  restraints,  the  power  of  doing  whatever 
one  pleases  —  in  other  words,  the  power  of  inflicting 
injuries  on  others,  arid  of  plundering  and  oppressing 
the  weak  for  our  own  benefit  and  pleasure,  and  at  our 
own  option.  This  is  the  sort  of  liberty  which  tyrants 
and  despots  enjoy ;  which  thieves,  slave  traders,  and 
20 


230  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

grog  sellers  claim ;  and  of  which  all  bad  men  are  ever 
enamoured,  who  always  raise  a  loud  cry  against  every 
new  law  which  goes  to  protect  others  against  their 
depredations. 

"  They  bawl  for  freedom  in  their  senseless  mood, 
And  still  revolt  when  truth  would  set  them  free  ; 
License,  they  mean,  when  they  cry,  Liberty, 
For  who  loves  that  must  first  be  wise  and  good."  * 

It  is,  indeed,  only  as  a  means  of  curtailing  this 
anarchical  liberty  of  doing  wrong,  and  of  subjecting 
men  to  a  mental  necessity  of  doing  right,  that  gov- 
ernments become  objects  of  moral  approbation,  and 
deserve  and  receive  the  support  of  good  men. 

The  progress  of  civilization  —  to  the  definition  of 
which  word  we  now  proceed  —  may  be  considered  as 
including  four  distinct  heads :  first,  the  advancement 
and  diffusion  of  knowledge,  which  implies  a  great 
extension  of  the  range  of  human  pains,  pleasures, 
and  desires ;  second,  the  accumulation  and  diffusion 
of  wealth,  the  chief  means  of  gratifying  these  new 
desires ;  third,  the  increase  of  the  average  force  of  the 
sentiment  of  benevolence,  producing  what  is  called 
the  moral  advancement  of  communities :  and,  fourth, 
an  increased  sensibility  to  several  pleasures  and  pains 
—  the  sensibility  to  which,  from  certain  resemblances 
and  relations  which  they  have,  is  commonly  desig- 
nated by  the  word  Taste. 

These  four  branches  of  civilization  always  tend,  in 
the  long  run,  to  promote  each  other ;  nor  can  the 
progress  of  either  be  continued  to  any  great  extent, 
except  simultaneously  with  the  advancement  of  the 

*  Milton. 


DEFINITION    OF    TERMS.  231 

others.  Yet  frequently  the  means  by  which  an  im- 
mediate or  apparent  advancement  of  one  of  these 
objects  may  be  obtained  is  in  direct  opposition  to  the 
progress  of  the  others  ;  whence  have  arisen  great  con- 
fusion of  ideas  and  numberless  disputes  and  contra- 
dictions between  philosophers,  political  economists, 
moralists,  and  critics,  who  have  taken  too  narrow  a 
view  of  things,  and,  instead  of  seeking  to  advance 
these  four  objects  simultaneously,  have  sought  to  push 
forward  one  of  them  in  preference  to,  if  not  to  the 
neglect  and  sacrifice  of,  the  rest. 


232  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

CHAPTER  II. 

EFFECT  OF  THE  DIFFEKENT  KINDS  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

SECTION  FIRST. 
Test  of  the  Degree  in  which  Governments  inflict  Pain. 

ALTHOUGH  every  exertion  of  power  tends  to  inflict 
a  pain  of  inferiority,  it  does  by  no  means  follow,  as 
some  have  imagined,  that  governments  are  unfavora- 
ble to  happiness  in  proportion  to  the  power  which 
they  exercise.  Even  without  reference  to  the  pleasure 
which  those  who  govern  derive  from  authority,  —  an 
important  consideration,  not  to  be  overlooked,  —  and 
taking  into  account  only  the  welfare  of  the  governed, 
government  has  three  great  objects,  each  containing 
many  particulars,  neither  of  which  can  be  accom- 
plished without  great  exertions  of  power.  These  ob- 
jects are,  first,  the  protection  of  the  community  against 
aggressions  from  abroad ;  secondly,  such  works  of 
utility  as  are  beyond  the  power  of  individuals  to 
execute,  or  the  utility  of  which  is  of  so  general  a 
character  that  no  individual  in  particular  has  any 
special  motive  to  undertake  them  ;  and,  thirdly,  the 
internal  suppression  of  plunder,  fraud,  and  private 
violence,  by  the  establishment  of  tribunals  for  the 
settlement  of  all  private  controversies,  and  means  for 
the  prevention,  •  detection,  and  punishment  of  viola- 
tions of  laws  of  which  the  public  good  requires  the 
enforcement.  For  the  accomplishment  of  these  ob- 
jects, a  very  high  degree  of  power  is  essential ;  and  a 


DEGREE    IN    WHICH    GOVERNMENTS    INFLICT    PAIN.     233 

government  not  possessed  of  that  power  is  almost 
worse  than  no  government  at  all,  since  it  excites  hopes 
which  it  fails  to  fulfil,  and  prevents  the  citizens  from 
providing  for  their  own  security,  though  itself  unable 
to  defend  them. 

This  weakness  of  government  —  a  fruitful  source 
of  individual  misery  —  springs  frequently  from  igno- 
rance of  what  it  ought  to  aim  at,  still. oftener  from 
ignorance  as  to  the  true  means  of  acco*mplishing  thoso 
aims  ;  but  frequently,  also,  from  an  excessive  degree 
of  power  possessed  by  individuals  or  factions  or  orders 
in  the  state,  hostile  to  the  executive  authority,  and 
laboring  to  paralyze  or  to  counteract  it. 

The  inconveniences  thence  arising,  and  the  absolute 
necessity  of  a  great  concentration  of  power  for  the 
discharge  of  those  functions  of  government  essential 
to  the  public  welfare,  will  serve  to  explain  the  prefer- 
ence, already  alluded  to,  which  some  benevolent  and 
enlightened  men  have  entertained  for  absolute  monar- 
chies, and  especially  for  theocratic  governments.  But 
an  unanswerable  objection  to  such  governments  is, 
that  the  concentration  of  power  thus  brought  about  is 
very  apt  to  be  employed,  not  in  the  promotion  of  the 
public  welfare,  but  in  promoting  the  interest  of  a  few ; 
or,  more  properly  speaking,  the  interest  of  those  few 
is  mistaken  for  the  public  interest,  the  masses  being 
too  much  crushed  under  such  governments  to  be  reck- 
oned as  a  part  of  the  body  politic. 

The  true  test  of  the  degree  of  pain  which  a  gov- 
ernment inflicts  is  to  be  sought,  not  in  the  extent  or 
degree  of  its  power,  but  in  the  opposition,  active  or 
passive,  which  it  encounters  —  that  is  to  say,  in  the 
degree  of  hatred  which  it  inspires. 
20* 


234  THEORY  OF  POLITICS. 

SECTION  SECOND. 
Operation  of  Governments  founded  upon  Conquest. 

TESTED  by  the  rule  laid  down  above,  governments 
founded  on  conquest  must  be  reckoned  as  the  most 
oppressive  and  painful  of  all.  A  certain  portion  of 
the  inhabitants*  of  a  country,  who  have  come  into  it 
as  invaders,  and  who  maintain  themselves  in  author- 
ity by  the  possession  of  arms,  superior  courage,  war- 
like skill,  and  combination,  lord  it  over  a  certain  other 
and  almost  always  a  much  larger  portion  of  the  in- 
habitants, who  have  been  subdued  and  disarmed,  and, 
if  not  plundered  outright,  which  generally  happens, 
subjected,  which  amounts  to  much  the  same  thing, 
to  the  payment  of  a  heavy  tribute,  now  in  rent,  and 
now  in  taxes.  Such  was  the  government  of  the 
Roman  republic  over  the  subject  provinces,  and  of  the 
Ottoman  Turks  over  the  countries  which  they  sub- 
dued ;  and  such  still  is,  with  certain  modifications, 
the  government  of  the  English  over  Ireland  and  India. 
No  wonder  if  this  sort  of  subjection  receives  the 
name  of  slavery,  since  it  bears,  in  fact,  a  very  strong 
resemblance  to  that  condition. 

In  process  of  time,  and  after  the  generation  of  the 
actual  conquerors  and  actually  conquered  has  passed 
away,  as,  for  instance,  in  Ireland,  —  if,  indeed,  we  can 
properly  refer,  in  this  point  of  view,  to  a  country 
always  on  the  verge  of  rebellion,  and  in  which  the 
process  of  reconquest  has  to  be  constantly  renewed,  — 
the  extreme  bitterness  of  this  kind  of  government 
becomes  somewhat  mitigated.  It  is  no  longer  sup- 


GOVERNMENTS  FOUNDED  ON  CONQUEST.     235 

ported  merely  by  force  upon  the  one  side,  and  by 
fear  upon  the  other.  Admiration  begins  to  intervene ; 
and  traditionary  respect,  the  idea  of  property  in  power, 
and  sometimes  mystical  ideas  exert  a  certain  influence 
in  its  favor. 

Where  the  body  of  conquerors  is  small,  they  sooner 
or  later  become  amalgamated  with  the  conquered,  as 
happened  to  the  Franks  in  France,  and  to  the  Nor- 
mans in  England,  and,  to  a  great  extent,  to  the  Eng- 
lish and  Scotch  in  Ireland ;  and  thus  that  distinction 
of  caste  which  seems  always  to  originate  in  conquest, 
and  which  is  the  source  of  numberless  antipathies  and 
infinite  mischief,  gradually  disappears.  So  long,  in- 
deed, as  difference  of  caste,  or,  what  is  but  a  modifi- 
cation of  the  same  thing,  difference  of  creed,  is  made 
the  foundation  of  political  distinctions,  so  long  are 
good  government,  social  union  and  cooperation,  and 
a  high  tone  of  morality  quite  out  of  the  question. 

It  may  and  often  does  happen  that,  for  the  mass  of 
the  people,  conquest  is  little  more  than  a  change  of 
masters,  and  that  the  exactions  and  severities  of  the 
new  governors  are  little  or  no  greater  than  those  of 
their  former  rulers.  Sometimes  the  conquerors  are 
even  welcomed,  as  promising  relief  from  intolerable 
burdens.  But  in  general,  however  oppressive  an  ex- 
isting government  may  be,  —  that  is,  if  its  existence 
has  been  of  any  considerable  continuance,  —  some 
ideas  of  property  in  power  and  of  traditionary  respect 
have  been  established  in  its  favor ;  so  that  the  mass 
of  the  people,  however  oppressed,  yet  see  not  without 
sympathetic  suffering  the  misfortunes  and  downfall 
of  those  to  whom  they  have  been  long  accustomed 
to  look  up  a£  their  rulers ;  while  they  have  a  dread 


236  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

and  horror  of  strangers,  from  whom  they  anticipate 
all  sorts  of  injuries. 

Time,  as  has  been  already  stated,  may  gradually 
diminish  the  intensity  of  this  feeling ;  but  it  will  still 
continue  to  exist  so  long  as  the  conquerors  are  distin- 
guished from  the  conquered,  whether  as  an  order  of 
nobility,  a  religious  sect,  a  separate  caste,  or  a  domi- 
nant race  —  distinctions  in  many  parts  of  Europe  not 
yet  by  any  means  extinct,  and  unfortunately  in  most 
parts  of  both  'North  and  South  America  still  prevail- 
ing in  full  force. 

Such  governments  must  also  be  regarded  as  exceed- 
ingly hostile  to  the  progress  of  civilization ;  a  state  of 
painful  uneasiness  being  alike  unfavorable  to  the  in- 
crease of  knowledge,  the  exercise  of  benevolence,  and 
the  cultivation  of  taste,  all  of  which  require  a  certain 
calmness  and  freedom  from  pain ;  while  the  insecurity 
of  such  governments  are  highly  unfavorable  to  the 
production  of  wealth.  These  drawbacks,  however, 
operate  with  much  less  force  upon  the  governing  class, 
which  may,  as  in  Ireland  and  many  parts  of  Eastern 
Europe,  and  in  the  slave  states  of  America,  make  a 
considerable  advance  in  civilization,  while  the  inferior 
class  remains  plunged  in  utter  barbarism.  The  civil- 
ization, however,  of  such  states  seems  to  be  always 
superficial  and  at  second  hand  —  almost  all  those  arti- 
cles of  convenience  and  elegance  which  civilization 
brings  into  use,  including  books,  instead  of  being  pro- 
duced at  home,  being  obtained  by  importation  from 
abroad. 

This  oppressive  class  of  governments  founded  upon 
conquest  includes  every  great  empire,  at  least  in  its 
origin  and  earlier  period,  of  which  we  have  any 


TYRANNIES,    OR    MILITARY    GOVERNMENTS.         237 

knowledge.  It  must  also  be  considered  to  include  all 
governments,  of  whatever  nominal  character,  in  which 
chattel  slavery  exists  ;  since  slaves  or  persons  of  low 
caste  are  always  the  remnants  of  conquered  tribes,  01 
else  captives  in  war,  or  their  descendants. 


SECTION  THIRD. 

Of  Tyrannies,  or  Governments  supported  by  Mercenary 
Standing  Armies. 

NEXT  to  governments  founded  upon  conquest  may 
be  reckoned,  in  the  degree  of  pain  which  they  inflict 
upon  the  subjects,  Tyrannies  —  under  which  head  we 
here  include  all  governments,  whatsoever  their  form, 
which  sustain  their  authority  chiefly  by  means  of  a 
mercenary  standing  army.  This  sort  of  governments 
has,  indeed,  a  very  close  resemblance,  in  some  re- 
spects, to  governments  founded  upon  conquest ;  since 
military  force  on  the  one  side,  and  fear  upon  the  other, 
are  the  main  supports  of  both.  But  in  general,  they 
are  far  from  having  the  same  insolent  and  lawless 
character.  A  mercenary  army  is  always  under  more 
strict  and  regular  discipline  than  a  feudal  militia. 
These  governments  also  possess  the  great  advantage 
of  being  free,  or  of  tending  to  become  so,  from  the 
spirit  of  caste.  Frequently  they  have  the  merit  of 
destroying  it,  and  of  establishing  in  place  of  it  the 
complete  legal  equality  of  all  the  subjects  —  a  process 
which,  painful  as  it  may  be  to  those  of  the  superior 
rank,  is  always  highly  agreeable  to  the  much  greater 
number  of  the  inferior  order.  A  reader  of  Tacitus 


238  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

might  wonder  how  the  Romans  could  submit  to  the 
atrocious  rule  of  such  tyrants  as  Tiberius  and  Nero. 
But  it  must  be  recollected  that  the  cruelties  of  these 
emperors  touched  only  a  very  small  body  of  Roman 
nobles,  at  whose  humiliation  and  suffering  the  great 
mass  even  of  the  Roman  citizens  may  be  supposed 
to  have  been  rather  pleased  than  otherwise;  while 
the  vastly  greater  body  of  Roman  provincials  cared 
nothing  whatever  for  the  matter.  The  distinction 
between  Roman  citizens,  allies,  and  mere  provincial 
subjects,  which  had  sprung  out  of  the  Roman  con- 
quests, in  full  force  while  Rome  remained  free,  —  to 
use  the  phraseology  of  republicanism,  —  rapidly  dis- 
appeared under  the  imperial  rule  :  till  finally,  by  an 
edict  of  Caracalla,  (A.  D.  212,)  the  whole  mass  of 
Roman  subjects  not  chattel  slaves  were  recognized 
as  Roman  citizens  ;  thus  obtaining,  by  gradual  and 
peaceful  concessions,  a  privilege  which,  in  the  times 
of  the  republic,  the  Italian  allies,  to  whom  Rome 
owed  so  great  a  part  of  her  conquests,  had  extorted 
only  by  a  dangerous  civil  war.  This  privilege,  it  must 
be  confessed,  had  lost,  in  the  interval,  a  certain  part 
of  its  importance ;  yet  it  still  had  a  value  by  no 
means  to  be  disregarded. 

Tyrannies  uniformly  originate  from  commonwealths, 
and  imply  the  preexistence  of  a  considerable  degree  of 
civilization,  since  it  is  only  in  states  somewhat  civil- 
ized that  mercenary  troops  ever  come  into  use.  And, 
generally  speaking,  the  old  laws  and  political  usages 
are  still  kept  up,  so  far  as  is  consistent  with  the  new 
system,  and  perhaps  are,  in  some  respects,  improved. 
Such  was  the  case  with  the  earlier  Roman  empire, 
and  such  were  the  transient  tyrannies  of  Cromwell 
and  the  elder  Bonaparte. 


THEOCRACIES.  239 

In  their  general  freedom  from  the  spirit  of  caste 
and  hostility  to  it,  in  their  comparative  order  and 
moderation,  and,  in  consequence  of  the  foundation 
on  which  they  are  built,  in  the  superiority  of  the 
means  which  they  employ  for  the  protection  of  private 
rights,  governments  of  the  kind  we  are  now  consider- 
ing are,  in  general,  far  more  favorable  to  the  progress 
of  civilization  than  those  governments  founded  on 
conquest,  to  which  they  have  such  strong  points  of 
resemblance.  And  especially  is  this  the  case  when 
the  administrators  of  these  governments,  as  often 
happens  with  their  first  founders,  are  men  of  superior 
ability,  admiration 'of  whose  talents  softens  the  pain 
of  subjection  to  them.  Many  rulers  of  this  class  have, 
indeed,  given  great  iclat  to  their  empire  by  the  encour- 
agement which  they  have  afforded  to  literature,  and 
to  the  elegant  and  useful  arts  —  a  politic  proceeding 
on  their  part,  both  as  a  present  means  of  strengthen- 
ing their  power,  and  a  contrivance  for  securing  that 
favorable  opinion  of  posterity,  the  desire  for  which  is 
seldom  without  a  certain  weight  in  the  conduct  of 
affairs.  So  gracious,  indeed,  is  the  sound  which  the 
patronage  of  Virgil  and  Horace  has  given  to  the 
name  of  Augustus,  that  even  the  cold-blooded  murder 
of  Cicero  has  failed  to  leave  so  deep  a  stain  as  it 
ought  upon  him  who  so  ungratefully  consented  to  it. 


SECTION  FOURTH. 
Of  Theocracies. 

WITH  respect  to  governments  founded  on  mystical 
ideas,  commonly  known  as  Theocracies,  it  is  not  so 


240  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

easy  to  assign  their  proper  place  in  the  present  scale. 
When  the  mystical  influence  is  complete  and  univer- 
sal, such  governments  appear  to  be  the  least  painful, 
as  well  as  the  most  potent,  of  all,  supported  as  they 
are  by  a  zealous,  ready,  and  devoted  obedience,  even 
to  the  sacrifice  of  life  itself.  Such  was  the  loyalty  of 
the  subjects  of  the  prince  of  the  Assassins ;  and  a 
like  complete  and  unhesitating  devotion  has  been 
exhibited  by  many  other  religious  sects  towards  their 
spiritual  and  temporal  heads. 

In  other  cases,  before  the  mystical  influence  is  com- 
pletely established,  or  after  it  begins  to  decline,  mys- 
tical rulers,  anxious  to  reenforce  or  to  retain  their 
authority,  often  resort  to  such  atrocious  cruelties  as 
to  excite  against  them  the  highest  degree  of  hatred. 
Witness  the  outrages  inflicted  under  such  circum- 
stances upon  those  who  are  denounced,  not  merely  as 
rebels,  but  as  infidels,  or  heretics.  Witness  the  court 
of  the  Holy  Inquisition.  The  most  diabolical  actions 
recorded  in  history  have  originated  in  the  influence  of 
mystical  ideas.  The  love  of  power  or  of  wealth,  or 
the  fury  of  hatred  and  revenge,  by  which  men  are  so 
often  and  so  powerfully  impelled  to  the  infliction  of 
injuries,  are  and  always  must  be  restrained,  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  by  the  moral  sentiment.  But 
mysticism  rises  above  all  restraint,  and  even  presses 
the  moral  sentiment  itself  into  the  service  of  torture 
and  plunder.  The  atrocities  of  which  the  Spaniards 
were  guilty  in  the  new  world  did  not  so  much  arise 
from  lust  of  money  or  desire  of  domination  as  from 
religious  bigotry.  The  furious  hatred  with  which  the 
Catholic  religion  was,  and,  indeed,  still  is,  regarded 
by  many  Protestants,  had  an  origin  natural  enough  — 
the  autos-de-fe  —  the  "  acts  of  faith  "  —  the  tortures  and 


THEOCRACIES.  241 

burnings  inflicted  by  the  Popish  clergy,  in  the  vain 
struggle  to  preserve  their  power. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  amount  of  pain,  whether 
great  or  little,  which  theocratic  governments  inflict, 
they  are  the  most  fatal  of  all  to  the  advance  of  civil- 
ization. The  best  they  ever  do,  or  can  do,  is,  to  keep 
things  stationary.  Under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances, they  may  preserve  that  civilization  which 
already  exists.  But  that  is  all.  The  least  increase 
of  knowledge  —  and  the  increase  of  knowledge  lies 
at  the  bottom  of  all  progress  —  is  watched  and  re- 
pressed with  the  most  zealous  severity,  as  striking  at 
the  very  foundation  on  which  mysticism  rests.  To  eat 
of  the  forbidden  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil,  is  esteemed  and  punished  by  every  the- 
ocracy, not  only  as  a  spiritual  misdemeanor,  but  as 
an  offence  against  the  government.  From  Thales, 
Anaxagoras,  and  Socrates,  down  to  Galileo,  Newton, 
La  Place,  Humboldt,  and  the  whole  modern  school 
of  chemists  and  geologists,  hardly  a  man  who  has 
contributed  in  the  least  to  the  advancement  of  knowl- 
edge has  escaped,  at  the  hands  of  the  mystics,  the 
dangerous  charge  of  impiety.  Even  at  the  present 
moment,  what  hosts  of  "periodical  heresy  hunters" 
—  to  borrow  an  expressive  phrase  of  Carlyle's — stand 
ready  to  pounce,  like  a  flight  of  hornets,  and  with 
all  the  savage  rage  of  so  many  officials  of  the  In- 
quisition, upon  any  unfortunate  author  who,  upon 
any  point  of  metaphysics  or  morals,  ventures  to  think 
for  himself,  or  to  step  aside  in  the  least  from  the 
beaten  orthodox  track !  If  such  be  the  case  in  coun- 
tries, which  boast  of  religious  freedom  and  liberty 
of  opinion  as  a  guarantied  constitutional  right,  and 
21 


242  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

where  the  government  professes  to  act  irrespective  of 
mystical  influence,  what  is  to  be  looked  for  where 
these  very  "heresy  hunters"  are  themselves  the  rulers? 
To  supply  the  place  of  the  pursuit  of  knowledge, 
to  occupy  the  thoughts,  and  to  keep  the  mind  from 
wandering  into  forbidden  paths,  a  ceaseless  round  is 
enjoined  of  ceremonial  mummeries,  which  serve  at 
once  to  engross  and  to  stupefy  the  intellect.  In  a  com- 
munity in  which  every  thing  is  reduced  to  a  regular 
routine,  —  all  experiments  and  novelties  being  looked 
upon  as  dangerous,  at  least,  if  not  impious,  —  wealth 
cannot  be  expected  to  increase  with  much  rapidity, 
Europe  during  the  whole  of  that  era  which  we  have  de- 
nominated the  Middle  Period,  and  India  at  the  present 
day,  unite  to  prove  that  where  mysticism  is  predom- 
V  inant,  taste  and  the  average  force  of  the  sentiment  of 
benevolence  sink  both  to  a  point  sufficiently  low.  The 
popedom  is  probably  the  most  stationary  government 
of  all  Europe,  not  even  that  of  Turkey  excepted ;  be- 
sides being,  at  the  present  moment,  most  hated  by  those 
whom,  by  the  aid  of  foreign  bayonets,  it  holds  in  sub- 
jection. The  newest  and  most  modern  of  all  theocra- 
cies is  that  of  the  territory  of  Utah,  so  lately  planted 
among  the  Rocky  Mountains  by  the  Mormons  —  ;i 
community  whose  origin  and  progress  are  calculated 
to  throw  great  light  upon  the  earlier  and  always  ex- 
ceedingly obscure  history  of  mystical  governments. 
Flourishing  as  yet  in  the  vigor  of  early  enthusiasm 
and  willing  obedience,  this  new  American  theocracy 
has  a  long  career  to  run  before  reaching  the  decrepi- 
tude of  the  papacy.  Together  they  might  afford  a 
pretty  complete  view  of  the  rise  and  decline  of  mysti- 
cal power. 


GOVERNMENTS    BASED    ON    HEREDITARY    RESPECT.    243 


SECTION  FIFTH. 

Of  Governments  based  on  Hereditary  Respect  and  the 
Idea  of  Property  in  Power. 

GOVERNMENTS  founded  upon,  or  mainly  sustained  by, 
hereditary  respect  and  the  idea  of  property  in  power, 
—  of  which  character  most  of  the  monarchies  of 
Europe  have  been  till  lately,  and  still  are  to  a  con- 
siderable degree,  —  inflict  upon  those  subject  to  them 
only  such  pains  as  result  from  the  folly  or  wickedness 
of  the  administrators,  from  ignorance  of  the  true 
ends  of  government,  and  from  imperfections  in  the 
machinery  of  administration  —  defects  to  which  gov- 
ernments of  this  kind  are  very  much  exposed.  ^Tor 
do  they  in  general,  though  doing  little  or  nothing  to 
prevent  it,  place,  like  those  of  theocratic  origin,  any 
purposed  obstacles  in  the  way  of  advancing  civiliza- 
tion, which,  in  its  progress,  is  sure  to  undermine  the 
basis  upo,n  which  they  rest,  and  ultimately  to  bring 
about  a  revolution  which  throws  power  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  government  into  the  hands  of  an 
aristocracy  of  wealth,  capable  of  finally  passing,  by 
the  process  already  pointed  out,  into  a  democracy. 

The  subjects  of  these  governments  never  exhibit 
that  ^lavish,  abject  bearing,  proper  to  a  conquered 
people,  or  to  the  subjects  of  a  theocracy.  Compare, 
for  instance,  the  peasantry  of  Scotland  and  Ireland, 
poor  and  degraded  as.  they  are,  with  the  agricultural 
laborers  of  England.  The  character  of  the  Scottish 
peasantry,  and  of  the  Irish  peasantry  also,  notwith- 
standing the  subjection  of  that  country  by  the  British, 


244  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

was  formed  under  a  government  founded  upon  tra- 
ditionary respect — the  government  of  the  clans,  which, 
though  extremely  defective  in  its  administration,  and 
in  individual  instances  violent  and  cruel,  still  allowed 
the  subjects,  if  not  a  feeling  of  political  equality,  at 
least  a  feeling  of  blood  relationship  to,  and  of  common 
sympathy  with,  their  rulers ;  while  the  English  peas- 
antry, on  the  other  hand,  are  the  descendants  of  a 
people  repeatedly  conquered,  and  reduced  to  the  con- 
dition of  serfs,  from  which  they  very  slowly  emerged, 
and  to  which  the  weight  of  taxation  levied  in  England, 
till  very  lately,  almost  exclusively  on  labor,  joined 
to  the  doctrine  of  settlement  and  the  administration 
of  the  poor  laws,  has  again  almost  reduced  them. 


SECTION  SIXTH. 
Of  Civic  Aristocracies. 

WE  come  now  to  civic  aristocracies — governments 
mainly  sustained  by  the  accumulated  wealth  of  those 
by  whom  the  political  power  is  possessed  and  ex- 
ercised. 

By  way  of  distinction  from  aristocracies  of  caste, 
these  may  be  called  Open  Aristocracies,  or  Aristocra- 
cies of  Wealth  —  the  possession  of  a  certain  ^pount 
of  wealth  being  requisite  to  a  participation  in  the  gov- 
ernment, and  all  who  attain  that  amount  of  wealth 
being  allowed  to  participate  in  it,  being  received,  that 
is,  as  members  of  that  limited  combination  in  which 
are  centred  the  wealth  and  along  with  it  the  political 
power  of  the  state. 


CIVIC    ARISTOCRACIES.  245 

These  civic  aristocracies  are  far  more  favorable 
than  any  of  the  preceding  kinds  of  government  to  the 
advancement  of  knowledge  and  the  accumulation  of 
wealth.  The  accumulation  of  wealth  becomes,  in 
fact,  under  such  governments,  the  leading  object  of 
pursuit  and  desire ;  and  industrious  occupations,  as 
a  leading  means  of  it,  especially  the  superintendence 
and  direction  of  combined  labor,  rise  above  that 
stigma  of  contempt  with  which,  under  all  the  fore- 
going forms  of  government,  they  continue  to  be 
branded.  Wealth,  indeed,  under  all  forms  of  gov- 
ernment, is  a  great  object  of  desire ;  but  wherever 
the  military  spirit  is  predominant,  —  that  is,  in  most 
governments  founded  upon  conquest,  —  plunder  is 
looked  upon  as  the  only  honorable  source  of  wealth ; 
while  in  theocracies,  and  governments  founded  on 
hereditary  respect  and  the  idea  of  property  in  power, 
wealth  is  more  commonly  inherited  than  personally 
acquired  —  the  acquirers  being  regarded  as  an  order 
of  persons  very  inferior  to  those  who  have  inherited  it. 

Civic  aristocracies,  by  the  increase  of  wealth  which 
they  occasion,  and  the  greatly  increased  security  and 
sacredness  which  they  impart  to  the  laws  of  property, 
create  a  large  class,  possessed  of  abundant  compe- 
tency, or  of  sure  and  easy  means  of  livelihood,  thus 
giving  to  the  love  of  knowledge,  to  taste,  and  to  the 
moral  sentiment,  an  opportunity  for  freer  development, 
and  for  the  acquisition  of  new  force.  Knowledge,  in- 
deed, in  several  of  its  branches,  especially  those  re- 
lating to  physical  science,  is  zealously  pursued  in  such 
communities,  and  the  pursuit  of  it  is  warmly  encour- 
aged by  the  government,  not,  indeed,  for  itself  merely, 
or  as  an  agreeable  employment  of  leisure,  but  as 
21* 


246  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

opening  new  and  rich  sources  whence  new  accumula- 
tions of  wealth  may  be  derived. 

As  a  general  rule,  governments  of  this  kind  are  also 
administered  with  far  more  of  intelligence  and  science 
than  any  of  the  preceding  forms.  Indeed,  the  aris- 
tocracy of  wealth  has  proved,  notwithstanding  the 
sneers  that  have  been  flung  at  it  by  the  devotees  of 
hereditary  respect  and  mystical  influence,  as  well  as 
by  some  over-zealous  democrats,  a  form  of  government 
far  superior  in  its  practical  administration  and  social 
results  to  most  others. 

However,  it  cannot  be.  denied  that,  under  govern- 
ments of  this  sort,  with  all  their  advantages,  the  sub- 
ject class  often  suffer  severely  from  the  exactions  of 
their  rulers,  and  hardly  less  so  from  their  arrogance 
and  purse-proud  assumptions.  At  the  same  time,  they 
are  always  consoled  —  and  that  is  a  great  matter  — 
by  the  prospect,  at  least  by  the  possibility,  of  becom- 
ing themselves  members  of  the  ruling  class. 

The  great  defect  of  civic  aristocracies  is  one  inci- 
dent to  all  aristocracies,  oligarchies,  and  monarchies 
- —  a  constant  ignorance  and  neglect  of  the  wants  and 
interests  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  or  the  deliberate 
sacrifice  of  the  interest  of  the  mass  to  the  interest, 
real  or  supposed,  of  a  few.  Upon  this  point,  how- 
ever, aristocracies  of  wealth  present  several  alleviating 
considerations.  The  few  whose  wishes  and  interests 
they  consult  are  generally  more  numerous  than  the 
few  of  any  other  form  of  government ;  and  the  tran- 
sition from  the  class  of  the  many  to  that  of  the  few 
is  much  easier.  The  class  of  the  few  admits,  in  fact, 
in  these  civic  aristocracies,  of  constant  and  indefinite 
expansion,  till  presently  it  ceases  to  be  few,  becoming, 


CIVIC    ARISTOCRACIES.  247 

indeed,  a  majority  of  the. whole  population,  so  that 
the  government  passes  insensibly  into  a  democracy. 
The  distinction  between  the  few  and  the  many,  and 
of  course,  also,  the  distinction  between  the  interests 
and  wishes  of  these  two  classes,  is  also  less  marked 
—  the  few  and  the  many  melting  into  each  other  by 
imperceptible  degrees,  while,  in  other  governments  of 
the  few,  these  two  classes  are  separated  by  abrupt  and 
almost  impassable  barriers. 

But,  with  all  these  recommendations,  aristocracies 
of  wealth  are  also  attended  by  several  disadvantages, 
which  make  them  often  very  fruitful  in  pains,  and 
oppose  serious  obstacles  to  social  progress.  The 
adventitious  political  importance  which  is  attached 
under  these  governments  to  the  possession  of  wealth, 
makes  it  an  object  of  pursuit  at  all  hazards  and  at 
whatever  sacrifices.  Nor  is  there  any  limit  to  this 
desire  of  wealth,  nor  means  of  satisfying  it,  since  the 
political  importance  of  each  individual  constantly  in- 
creases with  the  increase  of  his  wealth  ;  while  the  pros- 
pect of  founding  a  family,  and  thus  acquiring  a  sort  of 
posthumous  importance,  gives  to  the  passion  for  riches 
additional  ardor.*  The  great  accumulation  of  wealth 

*  The  ardor  with  which  the  acquisition  of  wealth  is  pursued  has  been 
noted  by  many  English  travellers  as  a  peculiar  American  trait,  and  has 
even  been  set  down  as  a  democratic  impulse.  It  is  true  that  in  America, 
by  virtue  of  its  democratic  system,  the  ardent  pursuit  of  wealth  is  more 
general  than  in  England.  But  the  passion  in  America  is  much  more 
easily  satisfied,  since,  beyond  a  certain  moderate  limit,  the  increase  of 
wealth  adds  little  to  'social,  and  still  less  to  political  importance.  We 
have,  in  America,  no  boroughs  to  be  bought,  no  constituencies  to  be  bribed, 
and  no  peerages  to  be  purchased  ;  whereas  in  Great  Britain  there  is  no 
end  hardly  to  the  social  and  political  elevation  to  be  gained  by  money, 
which  is  not  less  eagerly  sought  by  the  very  richest  than  by  those  who 
have  still  a  competency  to  gain. 


248  THEORY    OF    POLITICO 

which  takes  place  in  such  communities  is  too  often 
made  to  centre  in  comparatively  a  few  hands  —  a  result 
accomplished  by  means  of  monopolies,  unequal  taxa- 
tion, and  laws  made  by,  and  uniformly  favorable  to, 
the  rich,  who  grow  constantly  richer,  while  the  great 
mass  of  the  laboring  population  are  kept  just  at  the 
door  of  the  poorhouse,  and  with  only  that  prospect 
before  them  in  case  of  sickness  or  the  decline  of  old 
age.  The  profuse  luxury  of  the  wealthy,  the  thou- 
sand new  delights  which  they  contrive  for  themselves, 
create  in  the  minds  of  the  poor  a  thousand  new  wants. 
which,  as  the  means  for  their  gratification  are  lacking, 
presently  take  on  the  form  of  pure  pains  —  pains  of 
ungratified  and  hopeless  desire,  pains  of  envy,  pains 
of  hatred.  The  poor  denounce  the  rich  as  heartless 
tyrants  and  oppressors,  rolling  in  luxury  at  their  ex- 
pense ;  the  rich  denounce  the  poor  as  envious,  wicked, 
malicious,  and  ignorant.  A  mutual  state  of  ill  feel- 
ing springs  up  between  these  two  classes,  —  wild  pro- 
jects for  the  equalization  of  power  and  property  on 
the  one  side,  and  stern  schemes  of  suppression  on  the 
other,  —  till  presently  the  government  can  only  sustain 
itself  by  employing  mercenary  troops  to  keep  the 
masses  in  subjection.  The  government  thus  changes 
its  character  ;  its  progress  towards  democracy  is 
checked  and  counteracted ;  it  assumes  the  charac- 
teristics of  a  tyranny,  and  tends  constantly  to  become 
either  an  aristocracy  of  caste,  —  the  masses  being 
hopelessly  reduced  to  the  condition  of  social  slavery, 
—  or,  what  is  more  likely,  an  absolute  monarchy  —  the 
masses  being  quite  ready,  for  the  sake  of  humbling  a 
hated  aristocracy,  to  assist  in  placing  supreme  power 
in  the  hands  of  a  tyrant  —  a  feeling  which  helped 


MIXED    GOVERNMENTS.  249 

Louis  Napoleon  not  a  little  to  become  Emperor  of 
France.  Nor  have  the  masses  any  thing  to  lose  by 
such  a  revolution,  their  condition  being  already  —  or, 
at  least,  so  it  seems  to  them  —  as  bad  as  it  can  be. 


SECTION  SEVENTH. 
Mixed  Governments. 

SUCH  are  the  effects,  so  far  as  relates  to  civiliza- 
tion and  to  human  happiness  in  general,  to  be  com- 
monly expected  from  governments  founded  upon 
conquests,  from  governments  sustained  by  mercenary 
troops,  from  those  erected  upon  mystical  ideas,  from 
those  resting  upon  hereditary  respect,  and  the  idea  of 
property  in  power,  and  from  these  wielded  by  wealth 
in  combination.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  Great 
Britain  for  example,  all  these  various  sources  of  power 
will  be  found  combined,  or  at  least  aggregated  —  the 
superstructure  of  the  government  resting,  more  or  less, 
upon  all  of  them.  In  such  cases,  however,  these  dif- 
ferent elements  of  power  are  extremely  apt  to  come 
into  conflict  with  each  other,  thereby  weakening  in- 
stead of  strengthening  the  government,  which  be- 
comes nothing  but  a  compromise  among  contending 
ideas.  Hence  the  violent  struggles  in  Great  Britain 
between  the  landed  interest  and  the  mercantile  and 
manufacturing  interest;  hence  the  struggle  of  the 
church  —  that  is,  of  mystical  ideas,  and  their  recog- 
nized agents  and  depositaries  —  with  the  civil  power, 
and  of  the  various  churches  and  church  factions  with 
each  other — struggles  by  which  the  efficiency  of  the 


250  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

British  government  is  often  so  impaired  as  to  inca- 
pacitate it  from  applying  remedies  to  the  most  obvi- 
ous and  acknowledged  evils. 

This,  however,  is  far  from  being  so  bad  a  state  of 
things  as  that  which  existed  throughout  Europe  dur- 
ing the  middle  ages,  when  these  different  fragments 
of  power  were  often  at  open  war  with  each  other, 
producing  a  degree  of  insecurity,  confusion,  and 
anarchy  very  hostile  to  social  progress.  The  monar- 
chical power  in  England  may  be  considered,  indeed, 
as  at  length  fairly  extinct  — the  monarch  having  be- 
come but  a  mere  puppet,  an  "  idle  king  "  for  show, 
in  the  hands  of  ministers  selected  by  the  House 
of  Commons  to  administer  the  government.  And 
though  the  continental  states  of  Europe  have  so  far 
gained  upon  England  during  the  last  sixty  years,  that 
the  country  which  was  then  the  freest  from  feudal 
shackles  is  now  the  most  encumbered  by  them,  yet 
these  ancient  feudal  ideas,  including  the  political  in- 
fluence of  the  church  and  that  of  noble  birth,  become, 
day  by  day,  in  spite  of  some  feeble  romantic  attempts, 
whether  lay  or  clerical,  to  revive  the  system  of  the 
feudal  ages,  more  and  more  mere  shadows,  mere 
shams,  like  the  pretended  monarchical  power  —  the 
predominating  and  controlling  authority  of  the  nation 
centring  more  and  more  in  the  hands  of  an  aristoc- 
racy of  wealth,  with  a  tendency  on  tfie  part  of  the  more 
enlightened  and  humane  portion  of  it  to  enlarge  itself 
gradually  into  a  democracy;  which  form  of  govern- 
ment it  remains  now  to  consider. 


DEMOCRACIES.  251 

SECTION  EIGHTH. 
Of  Democracies. 

IT  is  an  idea  very  prevalent  among  the  warm 
partisans  of  democratical  government,  —  it  is,  in- 
deed, the  fundamental  idea  of  Rousseau's  famous 
essay  on  the  Social  Contract^  —  that  there  exists  in 
the  numerical  majority  of  the  people  an  exclusive 
right  to  control  the  community  —  so  much  so,  that 
they  regard  the  democratic  form  as  alone  legitimate, 
and  all  other  governments  as  mere  usurpations.  But 
what  basis  can  be  found  for  this  alleged  right  of  the 
majority  to  govern,  unless  it  be  made  to  rest,  like 
all  other  rights  to  govern,  upon  the  superior  strength, 
force,  MIGHT  of  those  who  claim  it  ?  Here  is  a 
case,  and  this  is  the  sense,  in  which  Might  makes 
Right.  The  majority  have  the  right,  present  or  fu- 
ture, to  govern,  or,  rather,  to  decide  upon  the  forms 
and  policy  of  the  administration,  and  to  determine 
the  particular  agents  by  whom  it  shall  be  carried 
on,  —  since,  in  the  most  democratic  governments, 
the  actual  exercise  of  authority  is,  and  always  must 
be,  in  the  hands  of  comparatively  a  few,  —  because, 
and  only  so  far  as  they  have  the  might,  actual  or 
potential,  to  do  so.  Nor  does  any  such  right  exist 
for  any  practical  purpose,  except  so  far  as  the  ma- 
jority possesses,  not  merely  a  potential,  but  a  con- 
scious superiority,  supported  by  a  discipline  of  com- 
bination which  enables  them  to  concentrate,  in  sup- 
port of  their  authority,  a  greater  mass  of  the  natural 
elements  of  power  than  can  be  arrayed  against  them 


THEORY     OF    POLITICS. 

by  any  individual  or  any  minority.  Democratical 
forms  do  not,  by  any  means,  secure  a  really  demo- 
cratic administration.  For  that,  two  things  are  essen- 
tially necessary  —  a  certain  equality  in  the  diffusion 
through  the  community  of  the  primary  elements  of 
power,  and  the  habit  of  the  enjoyment  and  exercise 
of  political  rights.  Whatever  the  nominal  form  of  a 
government,  the  administration  of  it  will  speedily  fall 
into  the  hands  of  those,  whether  one,  a  few,  or  a 
greater  number,  with  whom  the  actual  superiority 
rests ;  and,  in  general,  the  form  itself  will,  sooner  or 
later,  be  made  to  correspond  to  the  actual  character 
of  the  administration./ 

The  duty,  under  democratical  governments,  of  the 
minority  to  submit  and  obey,  rests  upon  the  same 
double  foundation  with  the  duty  of  obedience  in  other 
governments  —  first,  upon  the  moral  obligation  which 
all  men  are  under  to  submit  to,  and  to  use  their  best 
exertions  in  establishing  and  enforcing,  all  laws,  by 
whomsoever  made,  which  are  plainly  and  clearly  for 
the  public  benefit ;  and,  secondly,  upon  the  moral  obli- 
gation which  all  mm  are  under  of  submitting  even  to 
unjust  law*,  when  forcible  resistance  to  them  would 
be  productive  of  more  evil  than  good  —  of  submitting 
to,  not  of  aiding  in,  their  enforcement.  Unarmed  or 
passive  resistance  to  bad  laws  is  always  morally  right, 
for  the  reason  that  no  popular  majority  has,  any  more 
than  any  other  ruling  power,  any  moral  right  to  enact 
bad  laws,  whatever  may  be  asserted  to  the  contrary 
by  those  flatterers  and  parasites  by  whom  the  ruling 
power  is  beset,  and  stimulated  to  crimes,  not  less  in 
democracies  than  under  other  forms  of  government. 

Supposing  a  community  in  a  condition  to  be  capable 


DEMOCRACIES.  253 

of  a  democratic  government,  there  is  obvious,  at  the 
first  glance,  one  particular  in  which  that  form  has  a 
great  and  singular  advantage  over  every  other.  Under 
all  other  forms  of  government,  the  pleasure  of  govern- 
ing —  in  other  words,  the  pleasure  of  superiority,  one 
of  the  greatest  pleasures  of  which  men  are  capable  — 
is  confined  to  a  small  number.  This  number  may, 
indeed,  in  aristocratical  forms  of  government,  be  com- 
paratively large  —  which  circumstance  has  always 
proved,  among  the  partisans  of  that  form,  one  prin- 
cipal recommendation  of  it,  as  compared  with  mon- 
archy or  oligarchy.  Thus,  in  civic  aristocracies,  or  a'ris- 
tocracies  of  wealth,  —  the  least  objectionable,  as  we 
have  seen,  of  all  kinds  of  aristocracy,  —  however  small 
the  actual  number  participating  in  political  power 
in  comparison  with  the  entire  population,  yet  there 
extends  to  every  member  of  the  community  a  certain 
hope,  prospect,  or  possibility  of  being,  at  some  time  or 
other,  admitted  into  the  privileged  class.  Still  it  is 
Democracy  alone  which  has  this  great  and  peculiar 
advantage,  that  while  all  are  obliged  to  submit  to  the 
pain  of  obeying,  all  are  allowed  to  participate  also 
irj  the  pleasure  of  commanding.  Every  vote  which 
the  citizen  of  a  democracy  gives  is  an  exercise,  on  his 
part,  of  a  certain  portion  of  the  national  sovereign- 
ty. Even  though  he  votes  in  a  minority,  his  vote 
is  not  without  its  influence  on  the  conduct  of  affairs 
—  a  circumstance,  leaving  the  character  of  the  actual 
administration  entirely  out  of  the  question,  or  even 
supposing  it  to  be  extremely  bad,  which  always  en- 
dears this  form  of  government  to  the  mass  of  those 
who  live  under  it ;  clearly  proving  the  falsity  of  that 
maxim  current  with  a  certain  class  of  speculatists, 
22 


254  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

that  the  form  of  government  is  of  no  consequence, 
that  being  best  which  is  best  administered. 

With  the  vast  majority  of  persons,  the  sentiment  of 
self-comparison  is  sufficiently  gratified  by  being  allowed 
an  equality  with  others.  Every  good  citizen,  whether 
good  by  nature  or  good  by  education,  like  every  be- 
nevolent or  merely  well-bred  man  in  the  social  circle, 
is  content  with  an  acknowledged  and  admitted  equal- 
ity—  political  in  the  one  case,  social  in  the  other.  He 
does  not  ask  any  exclusive  right  of  speaking  and  de- 
ciding for  the  rest,  but,  for  influence  over  the  decisions 
of  his  associates,  relies  upon  his  own  personal  posses- 
sion of  some  of  the  original  elements  of  power ;  for 
even  in  democracies,  not  only  skill,  courage,  activity, 
knowledge,  and  wealth,  but  even  hereditary  respect, 
mystical  ideas,  and  the  notion  of  property  in  power, 
have  always  hitherto  exercised  a  certain  degree  of 
influence  —  an  influence,  however,  in  the  case  of  the 
last  three,  directly  opposed  to  the  nature  of  democracy, 
and  too  often  resulting  in  its  subversion. 

Undoubtedly  there  are  always  to  be  found  in  demo- 
cratic governments,  as  in  the  social  circle,  a  certain 
few  to  whom  this  condition  of  equality  is  sufficiently 
irksome  —  men  in  whom  the  desire  of  superiority *is 
strong,  while  the  sentiment  of  benevolence  is  weak. 
Generally,  however,  men  of  this  character  are  of 
very  moderate  abilities,  possessed  with  an  overween- 
ing idea  of  their  own  wisdom  and  virtue,  and  full 
of  ignorant  contempt  for  others.  Men  of  superior 
capacity,  when  they  chance  to  live  under  popular 
forms  of  government,  are  very  generally  the  greatest 
admirers  and  warmest  supporters  of  those  popular 
forms;  for  the  obvious  reason  that  those  forms,  and 


DEMOCRACIES.  255 

those  forms  alone,  open  a  high  road  to  merit  and  to 
talent.  It  is  not  such  men  who  are  filled  with  fears 
lest  the  people  should  fall  under  the  exclusive  control 
of  mere  flattering  demagogues.  Though  they  may 
never  have  investigated  the  subject  scientifically,  and 
may  therefore  be  unable  clearly  to  state  how  they 
know  it,  yet  they  know  well  that  admiration  is 
the  true  basis  of  political  influence ;  and  they  know, 
too,  that,  in  order  to  excite  admiration,  there  must  be 
an  actual  or  apparent  superiority  of  some  sort  or 
other,  the  place  of  which  all  the  demagoguism  in  the 
world  can  never  supply. 

But,  besides  this  peculiar  advantage  of  democracies, 
(that  they  allow  all  to  participate  in  the  pleasure  of 
governing,  and  thus  neutralize,  in  a  great  measure, 
the  pains  of  obedience,)  it  is  also  clear  that,  even  as 
regards  the  mere  administration  of  affairs,  the  derno- 
cratical  form  possesses  special  advantages.  In  other 
forms  of  government,  rebellion  and  civil  war,  always 
dangerous  and  doubtful  resorts,  are  generally  the 
only  means  which  the  many  can  employ  against  the 
tyranny  of  the  few.  Under  democratical  govern- 
ments, the  ballot  box  always  holds  out  the  prospect 
of  a  peaceful  change,  both  of  rulers  and  of  policy. 
Much,  indeed,  has  been  said  about  the  dangers  to  be 
apprehended  from  a  tyrannical  majority.  Grant  that 
a  majority,  in  possession  of  power,  must  of  necessity 
be  oppressive  and  tyrannical,  sacrificing  without  re- 
morse the  interests  of  the  minority;  yet  surely  even 
that  is  a  lesser  evil  than  the  predominancy  of  a  tyran- 
nical minority,  sacrificing  without  remorse  the  interests 
of  the  mass.  It  is  no  doubt  true  that  all  possessors 
of  power,  whether  individuals,  minorities,  or  majori- 


256  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

ties,  are  strongly  tempted,  and  are  very  likely  to  abuse 
that  power,  and  that  often  nothing  but  fear  will  re- 
strain them  from  it.  But  so  far  as  relates  to  the  influ- 
ence of  fear  in  restraining  abuses  of  power,  there  is 
a  great  and  most  important,  a  remarkable,  and,  at 
first  thought,  hardly  to  be  expected,  difference  between 
democracies  and  all  other  forms  of  government.  In 
all  other  forms  of  government,  acts  of  tyranny  and 
oppression  are  comparatively  safe ;  in  democracies, 
they  are  always  full  of  danger.  All  governments  of 
the  few  may  safely  tyrannize  to  any  extent,  provided 
they  stop  short  of  provoking  their  subjects  to  actual 
insurrection.  But  in  a  democracy,  the  moment  a 
majority  performs  a  tyrannical  act,  it  falls  into  great- 
danger  of  ceasing  to  be  a  majority.  A  democratical 
administration  is  strong  just  in  proportion  as  its 
acts  produce  pleasure  ;  it  is  weak  just  in  propor- 
tion to  the  pains  which  it  inflicts  ;  and,  among 
these  pleasures  and  these  pains,  moral  pleasures  and 
moral  pains  have  no  inconsiderable  weight.  If  the 
pains  which  the  administrators  of  a  democratical  gov- 
ernment inflict  counterbalance  the  pleasures  resulting 
from  their  ascendency,  the  administration  is  sure  pres- 
ently to  change  hands.  An  act  of  oppression  against 
a  single  individual  may,  by  its  operation  on  the  sym- 
pathies of  the  community,  suffice  to  produce  a  political 
revolution,  which  takes  place,  however,  by  the  regular 
operation  of  the  mechanism  of  the  government,  with- 
out any  disturbance  of  the  public  tranquillity.  The 
only  acts  of  oppression  which  even  the  largest  major- 
ity, under  a  democratical  form  of  government,  can 
safely  indulge  in,  are  those  which  originate  in,  and  are 
sustained  by,  a  spirit  of  caste,  or  the  influence  of  mys- 


DEMOCRACIES.  257 

tical  ideas  —  two  ingredients  wholly  foreign  in  their 
nature  to  democratical  government,  and  essentially 
hostile  to  it,  though  sometimes  largely  mixed  up  in 
such  imperfect  democracies  as  have  hitherto  existed. 

-Municipal  ideas  having  become  generally  diffused 
throughout  the  more  civilized  portions  of  the  world, 
the  people,  the  mass,  or,  rather,  if  we  look  at  the  actual 
facts,  a  number  of  speculative  individuals  in  their  name 
and  behalf,  are  beginning  to  feel  their  might,  and  to 
claim  their  right.  Hence  the  demands  which  have  been 
made  throughout  Europe  for  extended,  if  not  universal, 
suffrage  and  elective  legislatures ;  and  if,  hitherto,  these 
demands  have  failed  to  be  enforced,  we  must  attribute 
it  to  their  not  having  yet  so  much  been  urged  by  the 
masses  themselves  as  by  others  for  them.  The  privi- 
leged few  who  now  possess  the  control  contend,  on  the 
other  hand,  with  earnestness,  that  the  only  effect  of 
the  introduction  of  democratic  forms  would  be,  to  take 
political  power  from  the  virtuous  and  enlightened,  in 
order  to  transfer  it  to  corrupt  and  self-seeking  dema- 
gogues—  the  favorites  and  flatterers  of  an  ignorant, 
vicious,  senseless  multitude,  brutish,  stupid,  cruel,  and 
wicked,  unfit  to  be  intrusted  with  power,  incapable 
of  discerning  their  own  good,  much  less  the  good  of 
the  whole,  and,  even  when  they  do  discern  it,  ready 
to  sacrifice  it  to  the  appetite,  passion,  or  caprice  of 
the  moment,  destitute  of  all  respect  for  the  institution 
of  property,  and  ready  to  trample  under  foot  all  the 
obligations  of  morals,  and,  along  with  them,  talent, 
sagacity,  knowledge,  eloquence,  virtue,  wealth,  nobil- 
ity, and  religion. 

But  declaimers    like  these   omit    to   consider,   or, 
22* 


258  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

rather,  perhaps,  they  do  not  know,  that  knowledge, 
sagacity,  force  of  will,  virtue,  eloquence,  wealth, 
traditionary  respect,  and  the  influence  of  mystical 
ideas  are  elements  of  power  which,  wherever  they 
exist,  cannot  fail,  especially  under  democratical  forms 
of  government,  to  exert  an  influence  proportionate 
to  their  force.  Suppose  even  universal  suffrage  and 
annual  legislatures  to  be  established,  yet  the  ele- 
ments of  power  above  enumerated  must  still  con- 
tinue to  .exercise  a  power  over  the  voters,  enabling 
each  individual  in  whom  they  are  specially  concen- 
trated to  exert  an  influence  over  his  fellow-citizens  in 
proportion  to  the  degree  and  force  of  that  concentra- 
tion. Not  only  the  actual  administration  of  affairs, 
even  in  the  most  democratic  communities,  but  the 
general  tenor  of  public  opinion,  at  least  on  all  ques- 
tions of  expediency,  must  ever  be  controlled  by  com- 
paratively a  few.  It  is,  and  always  must  be,  a  small 
number,  sometimes  a  single  man,  who,  upon  points 
often  of  the  greatest  importance,  steers  public  opinion 
as  the  pilot  steers  the  ship.  The  only  questions  are, 
whether  the  few  or  the  one  on  whom  this  pilotage  is 
to  devolve  shall  owe  their  post  of  pilots  to  birth, 
priestly  offices,  wealth,  inherited  or  acquired,  or  to  rep- 
utation for  superior  knowledge,  sagacity,  and  virtue  ; 
whether  the  number  from  among  whom  these  few  can 
arise  shall  be  a  limited  number,  or  shall  include  the 
whole  community ;  whether  the  one  or  the  few  once 
in  possession  of  authority  shall  retain  it  for  life,  and 
transmit  it  to  their  children,  or  whether  authority  shall 
change  hands  simultaneously  with  the  elements  of 
power  —  and  that,  too,  without  any  of  those  civil 
struggles,  or  of  that  violence  with  which  such  struggles 


DEMOCRACIES.  259 

are  always  attended,  whenever  the  political  system  is 
not  so  contrived  as  to  require  those  peaceably  to  sur- 
render authority  from  whom  the  natural  basis  of  it  has 
departed. 

That  which  may  be  said  to  constitute  the  special 
characteristic  of  democratic  government,  and  at  the 
same  time  its  special  and  great  superiority  over  all 
others,  is  this,  that  it  introduces,  under  the  shape  of 
frequent  elections,  and  a  suffrage  so  extended  as  to 
include  all  who  feel  any  interest  in  public  affairs,  a 
standard  —  and  for  all  practical  purpose*  a  sufficient- 
ly accurate  one  —  for  measuring  and  remeasuring, 
at  frequent  intervals,  the  degree  in  which  the  natural 
elements  of  power,  and  of  consequence  the  right  to 
rule,  appertaining  to  all  such  as  present  themselves, 
from  time  to  time,  as  contestants  for  authority  ;  thus, 
by  an  obvious  and  palpable  means,  showing  to  the 
weak  their  weakness,  giving  also  to  the  strong  op- 
portunity of  proving  their  strength  —  a  result  under 
all  other  forms  of  government  only  brought  about  by 
irregular  and  spasmodic  resorts  to  force,  now  on  the 
part  of  those  in  power,  and  now  on  the  part  of  those 
who  would  dispossess  them  ;  resorts  which  ever  must 
be  attended  by  an  agony  and  crisis  of  the  body  social 
and  politic,  and  which  but  too  often  aggravate  the 
very  evils  they  are  employed  to  cure.  From  these 
terrible  revolutionary  and  reactionary  movements, 
imbittered  by  ferocities  and  stained  with  blood,  dem- 
ocratical  communities  are  happily  free;  that  party 
which  perceives  itself  outnumbered  yielding  with  a 
good  grace,  well  knowing  that,  whenever  its  superiority 
becomes  manifest,  the  now  triumphant  party  will  yield 
in  its  turn. 


260  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

Undoubtedly  there  are  a  great  number  of  communi- 
ties, in  which  the  mass  of  the  people  have  been  degraded 
and  bmtified  for  ages  by  theocratic  or  aristocratic  op- 
pression, in  which  a  democratic  government  is  wholly 
impossible.  It  may  be  established  to-day,  but  it  will 
be  overthrown  to-morrow.  To  the  existence  of  a 
democratic  government,  to  the  application  of  the  test 
of  the  ballot  box  as  above  described,  a  good  degree 
of  equality,  both  in  knowledge  and  wealth,  is  abso- 
lutely essential ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally 
certain  that,*where  such  an  equality  shall  be  estab- 
lished, democratical  government  will  presently  follow. 
Among  communities  unaccustomed  (as  the  French, 
for  instance)  to  practical  participation  in  government, 
many  failures  may  precede  success.  A  child  cannot 
learn  to  walk,  neither  can  a  nation  learn  to  govern  it- 
self, in  a  day  ;  yet,  by  patience  and  perseverance,  both 
may  be  accomplished  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature. 

The  partisans  of  aristocracy,  the  household  poets 
and  historians,  the  paid  scribes  of  the  noble  and  the 
rich,  have  too  often,  however,  grievously  belied  and 
maligned  the  mass  of  the  people.  The  mass  are 
men,  as  well  as  the  few,  and  not  so  inferior,  either 
in  discernment  or  moral  feeling,  as  pride  and  pre- 
judice are  apt  to  imagine.  Let  us  hear  upon  this 
point  the  testimony  of  a  keen  observer,  of  nice  and 
discriminating  judgment,  of  warm  benevolence,  too, 
but  not  likely,  either  from  his  education  or  his  posi- 
tion, to  be  unduly  biased  in  favor  of  the  multitude. 
"  One  may  generally  observe,"  says  Addison,  in  his 
Remarks  on  Italy,  "that  the  body  of  a  people  Iras 
juster  views  for  the  public  good,  and  pursues  them 
with  greater  uprightness,  than  the  nobility  and  gentry, 


DEMOCRACIES.  261 

who  have  so  many  private  expectations  and  particular 
interests,  which  hang  like  a  false  bias  upon  their  judg- 
ments, and  may  possibly  dispose  them  to  sacrifice  the 
good  of  their  country  to  the  advancement  of  their 
own  fortunes ;  whereas  the  gross  of  the  people  can 
have  no  other  prospect  in  changes  and  revolutions 
than  of  public  blessings  that  are  to  diffuse  themselves 
through  the  whole  state  in  general." 

So  much  for  the  influence  of  democratical  govern- 
ments upon  happiness  in  general.  Let  us  now  briefly 
inquire  how  they  affect  the  progress  of  civilization  — 
the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge  and  wealth, 
and  the  elevation  of  the  standards  of  taste  and 
morals. 

Knowledge,  wealth,  and  the  gratifications  of  taste 
are  such  universal  objects  of  desire,  that  men,  if  left 
at  liberty  to  do  so,  will  always  pursue  them ;  and 
may  it  not  safely  be  concluded,  that  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  those  who  pursue  will  be  the  number 
of  those  who  attain  ?  Democratical  governments,  by 
reason  of  the  very  principle  of  equality  upon  which 
they  are  founded,  are  decidedly  hostile  to  all  monopo 
lies,  restrictions,  or  prohibitions.  They  afford,  or  tend 
to  afford,  an  equal  chance  to  all  competitors  —  that  is, 
to  the  whole  mass  of  the  citizens  ;  whereas,  under  all 
other  forms  of  government,  (unless  a  few  civic  aris- 
tocracies ought  to  be  partially  excepted,)  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  are  cut  off  from  all  pretensions  to 
knowledge,  to  taste,  and  to  wealth.  The  pursuit  of 
these  objects  'being  confined  to  a  few,  their  diffusion, 
which  is  equally  important  with  their  acquisition,  is, 
of  course,  confined  within  very  narrow  limits ;  while 
the  amount  acquired  is  also  restricted  by  the  small 


262  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

number  of  those 'who  adventure  in  the  pursuit.  Is 
there  any  thing  to  which  the  civilization  of  the  present 
day  is  so  much  indebted  for  its  rapid  advancement  as 
to  the  approach  made  of  late,  throughout  Christen- 
dom, to  free  competition  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge, 
wealth,  and  the  elegances  of  life  ? 

As  regards  that  part  of  civilization  which  consists 
in  the  increase  of  the  ayerage  force  of  the  sentiment 
of  benevolence,  the  most  dangerous  opposition  to  the 
dictates  of  the  moral  sentiment  unquestionably  origi- 
nates in  antipathies  which  grow  out  of  the  division 
of  men  into  castes,  mystical  sects,  and  hostile  tribes 
and  nations.  Now,  democratical  institutions  are  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  spirit  of  caste  and  to  the  in- 
fluence of  mysticism.  They  tend  to  produce  a  gen- 
eral spirit  of  humanity  and  philanthropy.  They  are 
equally  hostile  to  that  excessive  admiration  which  can 
discover  nothing  bad  or  wrong,  and  which  is  ready  to 
pardon  every  thing  in  those  who  are  the  objects  of  it, 
and  to  that  arrogant  contempt  which  can  see  nothing 
good  or  right  in  those  against  whom  it  is  directed,  and 
which  can  make  no  excuses  nor  allowances  for  them. 

Under  a  democratical  form  of  government,  it  is  no 
longer  possible  for  half  a  dozen  different  codes  of  mor- 
als, often  in  many  points  in  flagrant  contradiction  to 
each  other,  to  flourish  simultaneously  in  the  same 
community.  In  place  of  these  various  and  contradic- 
tory codes,  democracy  gradually  substitutes  one  code, 
one  moral  standard,  by  which  the  actions  of  all  are  to 
be  judged ;  thus  giving  additional  vigor  to  the  moral 
law,  which  rules  in  democracies  with  a  force  that  ap- 
pears despotic  to  those  unaccustomed  to  it,  but  which 
is  only  injurious  in  so  far  as  the  received  moral  code 


DEMOCRACIES.  263 

happens  to  rest  upon  a  false  basis  or  on  mistaken 
notions,  and  which  becomes  salutary  in  proportion  as 
that  code  becomes  enlightened  and  complete. 

M.  de  Tocqueville  did  very  well  to  seek,  in  the 
United  States  of  America,  for  information  as  to  the 
working  of  the  democratic  system  when  applied  to 
large  extents  of  territory.  But,  in  attempting  to  form 
a  general  judgment  as  to  the  social,  moral,  and  in- 
tellectual influences  of  that  form  of  government,  he 
might  have  done  better  not  to  have  confined  himself 
so  exclusively  to  that  single  example.  Instead  of,  in 
the  absence  of  facts,  or  in  ignorance  of  them,  setting 
down,  as  conclusions  established,  what,  at  the  best, 
can,  for  the  most  part,  only  be  regarded  as  plausi- 
ble conjectures,  might  not  that  fluent  but  somewhat 
superficial  writer  have  shed  more  light  upon  the  subject 
by  turning  his  attention  to  the  history  of  Europe 
during  the  last  eight  or  nine  centuries ;  tracing  there 
the  municipal  spirit,  —  in  other  words,  Democracy, — 
in  its  gradual  rise  from  small  and  obscure  beginnings ; 
showing  how  it  gave  a  commencement  to  the  modern 
civilization  of  Europe,  and  though  opposed  by  a 
thousand  obstacles,  and  often,  to  appearance,  almost 
extinguished,  how  it  kept  always  spreading,  always 
growing,  till  now  at  length  it  seems  upon  the  point 
of  producing  that  great  social  and  political  revolution 
which  M.  de  Tocqueville  clearly  enough  foresees  and 
appears  to  regard  as  inevitable,  but  the  true  nature 
and  real  origin  and  progress  of  which  he  appears  to 
be  very  far  from  having  fully  comprehended  ? 

Those,  indeed,  who  seek,  in  the  history  and  present 
condition  of  the  United  States  of  America,  for  the 
practical  workings  of  a  democratical  form  of  govern- 


264  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

rnent,  must  make  due  allowance,  if  they  would  avoid 
falling  into  very  grave  errors,  for  the  operation  of 
several  disturbing  forces,  of  which  the  influence  upon 
the  institutions  and  social  condition  of  America  is  far 
from  inconsiderable. 

The  first  of  these  disturbing  forces  is  the  English 
common  law,  adopted  as  the  basis  of  American  juris- 
prudence—  a  scheme  for  the  administration  of  justice, 
whether  civil  or  criminal,  exceedingly  defective,  and 
in  several  respects,  especially  as  now  understood  and 
interpreted  by  the  courts,  directly  hostile  to  the  spirit 
of  democracy.  In  fact,  the  English  common  law,  if 
we  would  form  a  true  idea  of  it,  ought  not  so  much 
to  be  regarded  as  a  system  for  the  administration  of 
justice  and  the  enforcement  of  the  laws,  as  a  con- 
trivance for  setting  aside  the  laws,  and  defeating  the 
intentions  of  the  legislative  body,  whenever  those 
laws  and  those  intentions  fail  to  meet  the  approbation 
of  the  judges  for  the  time  being.  Such  a  system,  in 
certain  states  of  society,  —  as  a  defence  against  the 
oppressions  of  those  who  possess  the  legislative  power 
and  are  inclined  to  abuse  it,  or  as  a  supplement  to  legis- 
lative ignorance,  negligence,  and  incapacity,  —  is  not 
without  its  utility.  But,  under  an  enlightened  demo- 
cratical  government,  it  is  entirely  out  of  place  —  be- 
coming, in  fact,  a  contrivance  to  enable  the  few  to 
defeat  the  wishes  of  the  many. 

A  second  disturbing  force  is  to  be  found  in  mysti- 
cal ideas,  which,  though  not  admitted  to  any  open 
share  in  the  administration  of  affairs,  yet  possess  in 
all  parts  of  the  United  States  no  inconsiderable 
degree  of  influence  in  all  social  matters.  Hence  thai 
intolerant  bigotry  and  bitter  opposition  to  all  freedom 
of  inquiry,  or  speculation  beyond  certain  limits,  no 


DEMOCRACIES.  265 

less  characteristic  of  the  United  States  than  of  Great 
Britain,  but  more  proper  to  a  theocratic  despotism 
than  to  a  democracy,  or  even  a  civic  aristocracy.  It 
has  been  under  the  military  monarchy  of  Prussia  — 
truth  compels  us  to  acknowledge  it  —  that  the  freedom 
of  speculative  discussion,  banished  from  America  and 
Great  Britain,  has,  during  the  last  half  century,  found 
shelter.  And  yet  it  is  to  this  foreign  and  even  hostile 
ingredient  that  M.  de  Tocqueville  seems  inclined  to 
ascribe,  in  a  principal  degree,  the  success  of  the  demo- 
cratical  system  in  America  —  a  view  which,  if  correct, 
would  go  very  far  to  show  that  pure  democracy  is  a 
thing  not  practicable. 

The  third  and  most  powerful  of  these  disturbing 
forces  is,  the  existence  of  chattel  slavery  in  the  south- 
ern states  of  America,  and  of  a  spirit  of  caste,  derived 
from  slavery,  in  the  whole  of  them  —  things  in  direct 
contradiction  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  democ- 
racy, and  producing,  in  addition  to  many  practical 
evils,  an  odd  confusion  of  political  ideas  —  laws,  prac- 
tices, and  accepted  theories  being  often  strangely  con- 
tradictory and  incongruous.  So  long  as  slavery  exists 
in  the  United  States,  or,  at  least,  so  long  as  the  slave- 
holders enjoy  a  predominating  sway  in  political  and 
social  life,  it  will  be  in  vain  to  look  to  this  quarter  for 
the  full  realization  of  that  modern  democratical  system 
which  had  its  very  origin,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  :e- 
pudiation  of  chattel  slavery. 

Besides  the  allowances  to  be  made  for  these  three 
disturbing  forces,  it  ought  also  to  be  remembered  that 
the  United  States  are  a  country  very  recently  settled, 
where  the  accumulation  of  wealth  is  but  just  begin- 
ing,  and  throughout  the  greater  part  of  which  the 
23 


266  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

dispersion  and  poverty  of  the  people  form  serious, 
and  as  yet  insurmountable,  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
many  social  improvements,  especially  the  cultivation 
of  the  sciences  and  the  elegant  arts.  It  might  be  as 
well  for  the  good-natured  critics  and  speculatists  of 
Europe  to  wait  a  half  century  or  so  longer  —  and  even 
that  allowance  would  not  be  excessive  —  before  coming 
to  any  final  and  dogmatical  conclusion  as  to  the  blast- 
ing influences  of  democracy  in  these  particulars. 

Democracy,  in  the  municipalities  and  republics  of 
Europe,  has  been  mixed  up,  as  it  now  is  in  the  pseudo- 
monarchy  of  Great  Britain,  with  foreign  ingredients 
still  more  numerous  and  more  operative  than  those 
at  work  in  the  American  states.  The  experiment, 
therefore,  of  a  pure  democracy,  on  any  considerable 
scale,  may  be  said  yet  to  remain  to  be  tried;  though, 
of  all  states  of  which  we  know  any  thing,  the  northern, 
or  free  states  of  the  American  union,  certainly  come 
the  nearest  to  it. 

Traditionary  respect  and  the  influence  of  mystical 
ideas,  as  well  as  the  idea  of  property  in  power,  —  that 
is  to  say.  nobility  and  priestcraft,  —  are  fast  wearing 
out,  and  will,  it  is  probable,  cease  presently,  in  all 
enlightened  states,  to  be  elements  of  power.  Wealth 
and  knowledge  are  also  rapidly  tending  to  a  certain 
equalization.  But  these  two  elements  of  authority, 
being,  like  strength,  skill,  sagacity,  force  of  will,  and 
virtue,  forces  inherent  and  persistent  in  human  nature 
and  human  society,  cannot  fail,  even  under  the  most 
democratical  form  of  government,  to  exercise  their 
due  degree  of  influence.  Indeed,  it  is  only  under 
such  a  form  of  government  that  they  can  exercise 
their  due  influence,  neither  less  nor  more. 


HOPES    AND    HINTS    AS    TO    THE    FUTURE.  267 

CONCLUDING   CHAPTER. 

HOPES  AND   HINTS  AS   TO   THE  FUTURE. 

IN  the  cursory  view  taken  in  a  preceding  chapter 
of  the  history  of  Christendom  for  the  last  eight 
centuries,  we  have  found  that  period  divisible,  with- 
out any  very  great  forcing,  into  four  ages  of  two 
centuries  each,  during  which  the  Clergy,  the  Nobles, 
the  Kings,  and  the  Burghers  successively  enjoyed  a 
certain  headship  and  predominancy.  But,  besides 
these  four  ruling  orders,  we  have  also,  during  these 
centuries,  caught  some  slight  occasional  glimpses  of 
another  order,  to  wit,  the  mass,  —  the  delvers,  agri- 
cultural and  mechanical,  those  who  work  with  their 
hands,  —  in  numbers,  at  all  times  and  every  where,  the 
great  body  of  the  people,  but  scarcely  any  where 
possessing  political  rights,  and  even  where,  by  some 
fortunate  chance,  they  have  gained  them,  for  the  most 
part,  speedily  losing  them  again. 

The  clergy,  the  nobles,  the  kings,  the  burghers 
have  all  had  their  turn.  Is  there  never  to  be  an 
Age  of  the  People  —  of  the  working  classes  ? 

Is  the  suggestion  too  extravagant,  that  the  new 
period  commencing  with  the  middle  of  this  current 
century  is  destined  to  be  that  age?  Certain  it  is, 
that,  within  the  last  three  quarters  of  a  century,  ad- 
vocates have  appeared  for  the  mass  of  the  people,  the 
mere  workers,  and  that  movements,  even  during  this 
age  of  the  deification  of  money,  and  of  reaction 
against  the  theory  of  human  equality,  have  been 
made  in  their  behalf  such  as  were  never  known  before. 


268  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

We  may  enumerate  first  in  the  list  of  these 
movements  the  indignant  protest  against  the  African 
slave  trade,  and  the  combination  for  its  suppression 
into  which  the  governments  of  Christendom  have 
been  'forced,  by  the  efforts  of  ^  few  humane  individ- 
uals, appealing  to  the  better  feelings  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  operating  through  them  on  the 
British  and  American  governments.  It  has,  indeed, 
become  customary,  among  the  advocates  of  money 
making,  no  matter  by  what  means,  —  in  which  cate- 
gory we  must  place  some  London  newspapers  of 
great  pretensions,  —  to  sneer  at  the  attempted  sup- 
pression of  the  slave  trade  as  a  failure.  It  is  true, 
that,  by  the  connivance  of  the  Portuguese,  Brazilian, 
and  Spanish  authorities  with  scoundrel  merchants, 
British  and  American,  the  trade  still  exists.  But 
what  is  it  compared  with  what  it  would  be  did  it 
enjoy,  as  formerly,  the  patronage  and  favor  of  all 
the  flags  ?  and  how  much  longer  is  it  likely  to 
flourish  ? 

We  may  mention  next  among  these  movements  on 
behalf  of  the  laboring  class  the  abolition  of  chattel 
slavery  in  so  many  of  the  ultramarine  offshoots  from 
Europe ;  not  alone  by  the  strong  hand  of  the  slaves 
themselves,  as  in  Hayti  ;  not  alone  in  consequence 
of  protracted  civil  war,  —  a  consequence  generally 
pretty  certain  to  follow,  —  as  in  the  Spanish- Ameri- 
can republics ;  but  also  from  a  mere  sense  of  shame 
and  wrong,  as  in  the  now  (so  called)  free  states  of 
the  North  American  Union  ;  and  from  an  impulse  of 
humanity  and  justice,  even  at  a  heavy  outlay  of  money, 
as  in  the  British  tropical  colonies. 

We  may  mention  further  the  subdivision  which  has 


HOPES    AND    HINTS    AS    TO    THE    FUTURE.  269 

been  carried  so  far,  in  France,  of  the  lands  of  that 
country  among  the  actual  cultivators  ;  a  subdivision 
objected  to  by  certain  British  economists,  as  not  so 
favorable  to  the  production  of  wealth,  a  point, 
however,  not  to  be  hastily  conceded— but  which  un- 
questionably does  tend  to  give  to  the  cultivators  a 
certain  social  importance  and  political  weight. 

Let  us  add  the  system  of  savings  banks,  by  which 
the  English  laborers  for  wages  have  been  enabled  to 
invest  their  savings  in  a  comparatively  safe  and  easy 
manner,  and  thus  to  share  in  that  accumulation  of 
wealth  which  forms  so  important  an  element  of 
power. 

Add  further  the  constant  advance  and  development 
of  manufacturing  industry,  giving  employment  and 
high  wages  to  a  class  of  laborers  vastly  superior  in 
intelligence  to  the  stupid  and  thoughtless  rustics  by 
whom  the  fields  of  Europe  are  generally  cultivated  — 
a  class  among  whom  have  arisen  those  Chartists  and 
Socialists  whom  we  have  had  occasion  to  notice, 
towards  the  close  of  our  burgher  age,  as  claimants 
for  political  rights  ;  a  class,  in  fact,  from  which 
the  larger  portion  of  the  existing  burgher  class  has 
itself  derived  its  origin. 

Such  are  some  of  the  social  changes  which  may  be 
regarded  as  precursors  and  signs  of  the  approaching 
Age  of  the  People. 

If  the  mass  of  the  people  are  ever  to  be  raised  above 
the  servile  position  in  which  they  have  been  so  long 
and  so  generally  held,  there  would  seem  to  be  only 
one  way  in  which  it  can  be  permanently  and  ef- 
fectually done,  viz.,  by  imparting  to  them  a  vastly 
greater  portion  than  they  have  ever  yet  possessed  of 
23* 


THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

those  primary  elements  of  power,  sagacity,  force  of 
will,  and  knowledge,  to  be  backed  by  the  secondary 
elements  of  wealth  and  combination.  Nor  does  the 
prospect  of  thus  elevating  them  appear  by  any  means 
one  altogether  so  hopeless. 

Whatever  objections  may  be  made  to  the  existing 
distribution  of  riches,  and  to  the  artificial  processes 
by  which  it  is  regulated,  —  subjects  which  will  form 
important  topics  of  the  Theory  of  Wealth,  —  this  ai 
least  must  be  conceded,  that  no  mere  redistribution 
of  the  existing  mass  of  wealth  could  effectually 
answer  the  proposed  purpose  of  elevating  the  people. 
Any  such  redistribution,  even  if  means  could  be 
found  —  and  they  could  not  —  to  prevent  this  equal- 
ized wealth  from  running  back  again,  more  or  less, 
into  masses,  would  still  leave  every  body  poor,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  cut  up  by  the  roots  a  great  mass 
of  industrious  occupations.  What  is  vastly  more 
important  than  the  distribution  of  the  actually  ac- 
cumulated wealth,  is  the  distribution  of  the  annual 
returns  of  human  industry.  But  no  redistribution 
even  of  that  —  though  it  might  sweep  away  the 
existing  comfortable  class  —  would  suffice,  very  ma- 
terially, to  elevate  the  condition  of  the  great  body 
'  of  the  people.  Above  and  beyond  any  of  these 
schemes  of  redistribution,  in  order  to  redeem  the 
mass  of  the  people  from  poverty  and  its  incidents, 
a  great  increase  in  the  amount  both  of  accumulated 
wealth  and  of  annual  products  is  absolutely  es- 
sential. 

Here,  indeed,  we  discover  one  great  reason  of  the 
state  of  social  depression  in  which  the  mass  of  the 
people  have  been,  and  still  are,  so  generally  held. 


HOPES    AND    HINTS    AS    TO    THE    FUTURE.  271 

The  good  things  which  the  combined  efforts  of  any 
given  community  can  as  yet  produce  are  not  enough 
to  give  hardly  a  taste  to  every  body ;  and  the  masses 
have  of  necessity  been  kept  at  hard  labor,  on  bread 
and  water,  while  luxuries  and  even  comforts  have 
been  limited  to  a  few.  Labor  —  the  sole  resource 
of  the  mass  of  the  people  —  has  been  of  little  value, 
because  labor  has  been  able  to  produce  but  little  ;  and 
the  proceeds  of  the  labor  of  production  being  so  small, 
hence  the  greater  stimulus  to  substitute  in  place  of 
it  fraud  and  violence  as  means  of  acquisition.  The 
same  man  who  will  remorselessly  cut  your  throat 
in  the  struggle  for  the  scanty  waters  of  a  rivulet 
in  the  desert,  not  enough  for  the  whole  thirsty  and 
and  gasping  company,  would  readily  share  his  cup 
with  you  did  the  stream  only  run  a  little  fuller. 

The  first  great  necessity,  then,  of  the  human  race  is 
the  increase  of  the  productiveness  of  human  labor. 
Science  has  done  much  in  that  respect  within  the 
last  century,  and  in  those  to  come  is  destined  to  do 
vastly  more.  Vast  new  fields  are  opening  on  our 
American  continent,  on  which  labor  can  be  profitably 
employed.  So  far  from  labor  being  the  sole  source 
of  wealth,  all-sufficient  in  itself,  as  certain  political 
economists  teach,  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that 
Europe  has  long  suffered,  and  still  suffers,  from  a 
plethora  of  labor  — from  being  obliged  to  feed  and 
clothe  many  for  whom  it  has  had  nothing  remu- 
nerative to  do.  The  United  States  of  America  have 
now  attained  to  such  a  development,  that  they  are 
able  easily  to  absorb  from  half  a  million  to  a  million 
annually  of  immigrants  from  Europe.  What  is  more, 
the  laborers  of  Europe  have  found  it  out,  and  are 


272  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

rapidly  emigrating.  In  so  doing,  not  only  do  they 
change  a  barren  field  of  labor  for  a  fertile  one,  and 
at  the  same  time  relieve  the  pressure  at  home,  but,  by 
becoming  themselves  consumers,  far  more  so  than  ever 
they  were  able  to  be  at  home,  of  the  more  artificial 
products  of  the  countries  from  which  they  emigrate, 
they  contribute  doubly  to  raise  the  wages  of  those 
whom  they  have  left  behind. 

The  development  of  productive  .industry  seems 
then  to  be  at  this  moment  one  of  the  greatest  and 
most  crying  necessities  of  the  human  race.  But 
what  is  more  essential  to  this  development  than 
peace  and  social  order  ?  It  is  not  pusillanimity,  then, 
on  the  part  of  the  people  of  Europe,  but  an  instinct, 
more  or  less  conscious,  of  what  they  need  most,  that 
prompts  them  to  submit  for  the  present,  without 
further  struggle,  to  the  rulers  who  have  shown  them- 
selves to  possess,  for  the  time  being,  the  power  to 
govern  —  a  power,  let  it  be  noted,  quite-  too  unstable, 
however,  not  to  require,  even  in  the  view  of  those  who 
possess  it,  great  circumspection  and  moderation  in  its 
exercise.  War  and  civil  commotions,  though  some- 
times necessary  to  the  preservation  of  popular  liber- 
ties, have  very  seldom  indeed  been  the  means  of 
their  acquisition ;  conspiracies  hatched  abroad,  never. 
When  the  fruit  is  ripe,  it  will  fall  almost  without 
shaking  the  tree.  What  prompts  to  anticipate  that 
period  is  much  oftener  individual  or  class  suffering 
or  ambition  than  the  true  interest  of  the  mass  of  the 
people.  The  greatest  obstacle  at  this  moment  to 
the  comparative  political  freedom  of  Europe,  is  the 
vast  aggregation  of  power  in  the  shape  of  standing 
armies.  But  how  are  these  armies  possibly  to  be 


HOPES    AND    HINTS    AS    TO    THE    FUTURE.  273 

got  rid  of,  except  by  a  certain  interval  of  uninter- 
rupted quiet,  dispensing  with  their  use,  and  such  a 
contemporaneous  increase  in  the  value  of  labor  as  to 
make  the  maintenance  in  idleness  of  so  many  hands, 
instead  of  being,  as  it  now  is,  a  sort  of  substitute  for 
a  poor  law,  and  a  relief  to  the  overstocked  labor 
market,  a  useless  sacrifice,  and  an  expense  too  great 
for  any  community  to  submit  to? 

It  surely  is  not  from  barricades  and  street  insurrec- 
tions, provoking  the  murder  of  quiet  citizens  in  their 
own  houses,  by  fusilades  and  grape  shot,  in  the  name 
of  peace  and  order,  but  rather  from  a  more  careful, 
comprehensive,  and  profound  study  of  social  relations, 
joined  to  an  interval  of  peaceful  cooperation  in  the 
production  of  great  economical  results,  that  we  are 
to  hope  for  the  dispersion  and  extinction  of  those  un- 
fortunate and  unfounded  antipathies,  so  rife  at  present 
between  those  who  labor  with  their  heads  and  those 
who  labor  with  their  hands ;  those  who  plan  and 
those  who  execute  —  antipathies  growing  out  of  pre- 
vailing but  mistaken  theories  of  politics  and  political 
economy,  which,  by  dividing  the  party  vof  progress 
into  two  hostile  sections,  filled  with  jealousy,  fear, 
and  hatred  of  each  other,  have  contributed  so  much 
more  than  any  thing  else  to  betray  Samson,  shorn, 
into  the  hands  of  the  Philistines — jealousies,  fears, 
and  hatreds,  not  only  the  chief  source  of  the  discom- 
fitures recently  experienced  by  the  popular  cause,  but 
which,  so  long  as  they  shall  continue,  will  render  any 
further  advancement  of  it  hopeless. 

This  socialist  question  of  the  distribution  of  wealth 
once  raised  is  not  to  be  blinked  out  of  sight,  The 
claims  set  up  by  the  socialists,  based  as  they  are  upon 


274  THEORY    OF    POLITICS. 

philosophic  theories  of  long  standing,  having,  at 
least  some  of  them,  many  ardent  supporters  even  in 
the  ranks  of  those  who  denounce  the  socialists  the 
loudest,  cannot  be  settled  by  declamations  and  de- 
nunciations, and  mutual  recriminations,  any  more  than 
by  bayonets  and  artillery.  It  is  a  question  for  phi- 
losophers ;  and  until  some  solution  of  it  can  be  reached 
which  both  sides  shall  admit  to  be  conclusive,  what 
the  party  of  progress  needs  is  not  action  —  for  which  it 
is  at  present  disqualified  by  internal  dissensions  —  but 
deliberation  and  discussion.  The  engineers  must  first 
bridge  this  gulf  of  separation  before  all  the  drumming, 
and  fifing,  and  shouting  in  the  world  can  again  unite 
the  divided  column,  and  put  it  into  effectual  motion. 


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